Alexandre Pato sits forward in his seat and stares intently at the big screen. Anthony Martial has just opened the scoring for Manchester United in Wolfsburg and the Brazilian striker is suddenly full of questions. He wants to know when Martial arrived at Old Trafford, how many goals he has scored, how good he really is, whether he is worth the money.

Pato talks about Wayne Rooney, too. He is sorry Rooney is not playing. He is a big admirer of the United forward. He doesn’t understand the criticism of him. He says it is up to others to get the ball to him. He says the England captain is a number nine, not a number ten. Form may be temporary but class is permanent – that is his message.

Pato’s attention never drifts away from the screen. After three years of playing in Brazil and restoring his reputation as one of the best talents in football, the Champions League represents everything he yearns for. It symbolises the career he left behind when he moved from AC Milan to Corinthians three years ago and the career he now wants to recapture.

Alexandre Pato expressed his desire to play in England and return to the Champions League

‘One day I will come here again and hear the Champions League music,’ Pato says as he watches the game. ‘I remember my first time in the Champions League. I was 18 and it was Arsenal against Milan at The Emirates.

‘The night before, I remember I put my music on my iPod. I was lying in bed and I listened to the Champions League music. That was my Champions League debut, my first time. It was beautiful. When I went out onto the pitch it was just “wow”.’

Pato scored 26 goals in 59 matches last season while on loan to Sao Paulo, firing them into next season’s Libertadores Cup and reviving memories of the time when he was regarded as one of the most exciting young players in the world before injuries halted his progress at the San Siro.

He was heavily linked with a move to Manchester United last summer and his return to form has led to speculation that top English teams could move for him in January. With the Premier League title race wide open, it is possible leading clubs might consider the likely £15m asking price for the Brazilian a risk worth taking.

Pato watches Manchester United take on Wolfsburg while being interviewed in London this week

Mail on Sunday chief sports writer Oliver Holt interviewed the Brazil international striker

BRAZILIANS IN ENGLAND Mirandinha was the first Brazilian to find his way to England when he joined Newcastle in 1987 — he wasn’t a roaring success on Tyneside and few of his compatriots who followed him have found Premier League life easy. For every hit — Juninho at Middlesbrough, the Arsenal pair of Edu and Gilberto Silva and Manchester United’s Rafael — there have been many more misses, notably Roque Junior at Leeds, Kleberson at United and Jo at City. There are currently 12 Brazilians playing in the Premier League with Chelsea boasting four of them, Oscar, Willian, Ramires and Kenedy. Advertisement

Pato is open to the idea of a move to England. This is the first interview he has ever given in English, which is a heavy enough hint about where he wants to play. He has one year left on his contract at Corinthians but it is thought the Brazilian champions would be open to the idea of selling him if they can find a buyer.

‘Before I came to Italy to play for Milan in 2007, I saw in the papers that my name was mentioned in connection with some English clubs. I was told Chelsea were interested then but my dream was to play with Ronaldo. When Milan called my manager, I wanted to go there to make my dreams of playing with Ronaldo and Maldini come true. But one day I knew I would like to come to England because I think the championship is the number one in the world. It is very competitive.

‘I like the emotion in the English league. You look at the TV and you see the stadium and the fans. I remember that when we played Arsenal, they were very strong and very fast. My special thing is my speed. I’m fast. I think that’s good because the football here is very quick.

‘I don’t think the physical part of English football would be a problem. When you get the ball, you need to be ready. The defenders here are very tough but I like that. I have spoken to Willian, Firmino, Coutinho and David Luiz before. I think Brazilian players can play here. You mix talent and intelligence and Brazilian players can play here.

Pato has returned back to South America and Sao Paulo after his spell in Europe with AC Milan

Pato, pictured playing with David Beckham, came to Europe with a big reputation and high expectations

Pato says he wants to play in England in the future

‘When I see my friends like Willian here, I am happy. It is difficult to play here because there is much contact. It would be a new challenge but it’s soccer, no? There is a ball. It is the same all over the world. Talent is a feeling that you want to play.’

Pato is still only 26. There is a boyish charm about him that has survived his struggles to get back to the point where he was being mentioned in the same breath as the world’s great stars. His enthusiasm for the game is undiminished. His confidence has been rebooted.

The youngest of three children, he grew up in a poor neighbourhood of Pato Branco, 500 miles south west of Sao Paulo. Pato Branco translates as White Duck and Pato takes his nickname from the city of his birth. His father, Geraldo, earned £170 a month working for the city council as a topographer, measuring the roads for the construction department. Pato and the rest of his family slept in one small room.

When he was 11, Pato was offered the chance to join the youth system at SC Internacional in Porto Alegre. Even then, he knew he had to take the opportunity for the sake of his family. ‘We were poor,’ he says. ‘My father worked all the time for my family. So I told my father and my mother that I needed to go. I had my chance to be a football player.

‘My father and mother both cried. My mother said: “No, stay”. But I said I had to go. It was a choice I had to make to change everything. It was a chance to create a new life for my family and I did it for the love of my family. When I was 16 and I signed my first contract, I was able to buy their first apartment, their first home. It was very tough before that.

‘Now things are perfect. I was able to pay for my brother, Alexsandro, and my sister, Gisele, to finish school and go to university and my mum went to university in Pato Branco, too, to study finance.’

The Brazilian celebrates after scoring a goal against Belarus during the London 2012 Olympic Games

Pato does not need money any more but he has rediscovered his taste for success. If he can be the player he once was at Milan, then he would be another exciting addition to the Premier League. Milan signed him as a 17-year-old from Internacional, of Porto Alegre, for £20m in 2007 and Pato exploded into Serie A with frightening pace and brilliant close control.

In his first season, he played as one of a glorious triumvirate of attacking Brazilians alongside Ronaldo and Kaka, with Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo behind them in midfield. Later, when Robinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic arrived at the club, Pato won the Serie A title in 2010-11. Then, as the strains of the game started to tell on Pato’s young body, the injuries began to take their toll.

He still enjoyed his time in Milan. He smiles when he thinks of playing with David Beckham when the former England captain was on loan at the San Siro. ‘Before his first game,’ Pato says, ‘I looked for Beckham and said “when you have the ball, look up and look for me”.’ Pato makes a gesture to suggest he would be running fast to get on to a pass. ‘Every game, I said the same thing to Beckham and Ronaldinho.’

The Brazilian domestic season ended last weekend and Pato is spending time in London and Italy on holiday. He tried to look up his old Milan teammate Mathieu Flamini but he was away with Arsenal in Greece. He is going to visit Milan and spend some time in St Moritz. ‘When I am in Brazil, I miss Europe,’ he says. Now he is ready for his second coming.

‘When I came to Milan,’ Pato says, ‘I was very young. I was playing with Ronaldo, Kaka, Seedorf, Alberto Gilardino, and Pippo Inzaghi. But I played. But I felt after two years, my body needed special work. After my first injuries, I wasn’t doing good work. When I went on to the pitch for the game, after two games, I was injured again. I kept getting injured. I needed to go back to Brazil.

Pato remembers listening to the Champions League theme music on his iPod and being inspired

Pato scores for AC Milan in a Champions League clash with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in 2009

‘When I was getting injured so much, I spoke to my family and my manager and said I needed my body to recover. The first thing I thought was that I needed to stay upright. When I went back to Brazil to play, after a few months, my body was perfect. Now, after three years playing there, my dreams have come back and one day I think I will be coming back to Europe to write my new story.

‘Brazil is a good country, Sao Paulo is a big, big city but for your security it is difficult. There are bullet-proof cars, security. It can be dangerous if you go out sometimes. It’s okay if people want pictures. That’s part of my job, my work. But to go out is difficult.

‘For me it’s ok. I have my house. I have my car. I go to training. It’s my life. My life is playing football, training, preparing for football. Okay there is my family, my friends, my girlfriend but it is special for me to go training.

‘After three years there, I feel my body is very strong. I can come back to Europe and I think I can do better than when I was at AC Milan. I know my body now, I know the work I need to do before the game and after the game. I will be much better than in the past.

‘I have had a good season at Sao Paulo. I played 59 games and scored 26 goals. That is the best season of my career. Now I feel that my body and my mental strength are both good. My confidence is back. I had a couple of years of having injuries at AC Milan and it started to affect my mentality and my confidence.

‘I have a contract for one more year with Corinthians. I just finished my contract on loan with Sao Paulo and they now go to the Copa Libertadores. This year was a difficult one because the president changed, the directors changed. There was a lot of confusion. I don’t know – maybe I go back to Corinthians. Corinthians come back on January 6 for training. I don’t know what will happen then. But my dream is to come back to Europe.