Alexandre Pato in a recent interview voiced, “I entered Milan’s locker room at 17. Ronaldo gave me a Playboy mag and said ‘be in my group or in Kaka’s religious group”.

Alexandre Rodrigues da Silva, commonly known as Alexandre Pato or just Pato, is a Brazilian professional footballer who currently plays for Spanish club Villarreal CF and the Brazil national team as a forward.

His statement affirms in the positive the character of Kaka who made the “I love Jesus” shirt inscription popular. Pato’s career has been somewhat revived in Spain this season, scoring in three of his last five starts for Villarreal.

But the Brazilian has had an up-and-down time since arriving in Europe as a wide-eyed 17-year-old prodigy. Pato caught the back end of Milan’s great mid-2000s team, winning a Scudetto, but ;lost his way a little bit with spells in Brazil and then ghosting through Chelsea.

Now back and playing, Pato gave an interview in Italy in which he recounted many of the inside tales of that outstanding Milan side.