BREAKING: Alexandre Pato Secures Move Away From Villarreal

Alexandre Pato only joined La Liga side Villarreal in the summer of 2016 but he's already set to leave them in favour of a popular destination.

That's right, Pato is set to become the latest high-profile name to swap Europe for China as he's in line to sign with a Chinese Super League side Tianjin Quanjian, according to reports in Spain.

Villarreal coach Fran Escriba has left the player out of their squad ahead of their meeting with Granada while adding;

"We have analyzed the situation, but at the beginning it is difficult to count on him for this meeting, because he has an interesting option to leave the club and we can not take risks."

_{(Pato celebrating his only goal while on loan at Chelsea)}

Pato follows in the footsteps of fellow compatriots Hulk and Oscar as well as joining the fledgling league alongside Carlos Tevez, John Obi Mikel, to name but a few.

It appears the 27-year-old has snubbed offers from Europe following reports in Turkey claiming that Galatasaray expressed a desire to snap up the Brazilian.

_{(AC Milan signed the budding star from Corinthians in 2007)}

Though the lure of earning mega-bucks in Asia has proved too hard to turn down. The once teenage sensation is now set to grace the CSL. This pretty much sums up his career.

More to follow.

Topics: Transfers

Nasir Jabbar

Nasir Jabbar is a journalist at SPORTbible. He graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA in Media Communications. He's a combat sport aficionado, and has contributed to MMA websites AddictedMMA and CagePotato. Nasir has covered some of the biggest fights, while interviewing the likes of Conor McGregor, Darren Till, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. He's also an avid Bristol City fan.

@https://twitter.com/NasJabbar