Alexandre Pato

Alexandre Rodrigues da Silva began playing the indoor football game of futsal when he was only three years old and rapidly built up a reputation as a skilful and talented goalscorer as he grew older and despite wanting to sign for his boyhood favourites Gremio, he was persuaded to sign for Internacional at age eleven by his parents. Alexandre had already survived a cancer scare the year before when a family friend removed a potentially malignant tumour from the young player's arm after he broke it.

Nicknamed Alexandre Pato (Alex The Duck) after his hometown, Alex went on to play for Internacional's youth teams before making his first team debut in 2006 at the age of seventeen. Having scored for Internacional in the FIFA Club World Cup aged only 17 years and 102 days, Pato became the youngest ever goalscorer in a FIFA official club competition, beating his illustrious compatriot Pele's record by 137 days.

Pato's performances for Internacional and the Brazil youth teams brought attention from Europe's top clubs and AC Milan won the race for his signature in August 2007 paying out the minimum release clause in his contract to the tune of $22 million.

Due to Italy's laws on non-EU young footballers, Pato was unable to officially play for AC Milan until January 2008 and the opening of the January transfer window but had already made his non-competitive AC Milan debut against Dynamo Kiev the previous September after turning 18. Pato duly scored and completed the double after scoring on his competitive Serie A debut against Napoli as well.

Alexandre Pato is one of Dunga's brightest young hopes for the future of the Brazil national team and, equally so, holds the key to AC Milan's future success alongside his Brazilian team-mate Kaka.