Blackburn Rovers owner Anuradha Desai claims the club have tabled a £6.2 million bid for AC Milan’s Ronaldinho.
Reports of a sensational move for the former World Player of the Year emerged on Monday with Rovers’ new owners Venky’s keen to make a splash in the transfer window.
Venky’s initially denied making any move for the Brazilian forward, but now Sky Sports News claim Desai has confirmed the Ewood Park outfit has lodged an offer with Milan for the former Barcelona star.
The Indian owners of Rovers have been in talks with Ronaldinho’s agent in an audacious bid to sign the Milan player who returned to Brazil from their winter training camp in Dubai.
The plan is the brainchild of Balaji Rao, a member of the family who run Venky’s, the Indian poultry company which recently bought the Lancashire club, according to a report in the Daily Mirror.
Ronaldinho has been given permission by Milan to find a new club and was widely believed to be heading back to Brazil to play for Gremio.
But his brother and agent, Roberto de Assis, revealed to the Daily Mirror that Blackburn and another unnamed Premier League club have been in contact with him about signing the Brazilian World Cup winner.
“Blackburn have contacted us. There is also other interest in England but this is confidential,” said De Assis.
Rovers are understood to have offered Ronaldinho a £130,000-per-week, two-and-a-half-year contract and would also have to pay Milan a fee.
Rovers’ chances of landing Ronaldinho appeared slim after he was given permission by Milan to leave their training camp in Dubai and fly back to Brazil to negotiate a transfer.
The Brazilian clubs Gremio, Flamengo and Palmeiras have said they are interested in the playmaker.
Ronaldinho’s brother left the door open when he added on Sunday night: “We will arrive in Porto Alegre in order to negotiate with Gremio but nothing is decided yet.
“Everything depends on how these negotiations go. If we don’t reach an agreement with a club in Brazil, then he will return to Milan, as he is still a Milan player. We are not ruling anything out.”
The Rao family bought Blackburn for £43m in November and showed their ability to shock the footballing world when they sacked the manager, Sam Allardyce, a few weeks later.
Venky’s chairman Desai, said after Allardyce’s departure that the new owners wanted a top-five finish and “good football.”
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