Brazil coach Dunga believes Alexandre Pato can emulate Ronaldo after the teenage prodigy marked his international debut with a sublime winner against Sweden.Pato, 18, only made his first appearance for AC Milan two months ago but is already being heralded as a phenomenal talent. He underlined his huge potential with a breathtaking cameo at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium on Wednesday to clinch a 1-0 victory over Sweden.
The young star had only been on the pitch for 12 minutes as a second-half substitute when he punished Rami Shaaban’s mistake with a curling effort from an acute angle wide on the left wing.
Ronaldo, a World Cup winner in 2002, played alongside Dunga earlier in his career and the Selecao coach is convinced Pato has the same world-beating ability as his Milan teammate.
“He is in the style of Ronaldo at that age,” Dunga said. “They both like to get involved and try to do what you tell them. You have to give players like that room to be creative.
“I don’t think he is a normal talent. There are some people that can make a big difference and he is one of those players.
“He has developed in the time he has been in Italy and already has good standing at Milan.
“He is very young for this but he is humble, modest and keeps working.
“It was an important goal. To do this in his first game gives him confidence.”
It was fitting Pato made such an instant impact in a match arranged to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brazil’s first World Cup final triumph, a 5-2 win over the Swedes that established Pele as the game’s first global star.
While Dunga is excited to work with Pato, he is keen to let the precocious youngster develop at his own pace. The next step will be to take part in the Olympics Games in Beijing later this year.
“He is ready to start. He has the Olympic Games coming up and that is a big opportunity for him,” Dunga said. “He’s a really promising player but we can’t put too much responsibility on him. We have to break him in gently.
“We can’t expect him to do everything on his own. He has to come into his game naturally but he definitely has talent.
There are a lot of expectations but we don’t want to exaggerate.”
http://soccerglobe.net/2008/04/02/pato-as-good-as-ronaldo-says-dunga/
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