Thiago's a winner just like his dad

Success runs in the blood for Manchester United target Thiago Alcantara and the Reds should do all they can to clinch his signature.

Thiago Alcantara with the U21s European Championship trophy

Manchester United target Thiago Alcantara has the perfect football and sporting pedigree.
Remember the famous Brazilian goal celebration in World Cup ‘94? One of the players involved was Mazinho – Thiago’s dad.
Brazil’s Bebeto had marked his goal in the 3-2 quarter-final win against Holland with a baby-rocking celebration after the birth of his son.
Two other players took up the carnival dance in Dallas – one was Romario, the other was Mazinho.
Mazinho played 35 times for his country and was a World Cup winner in that USA tournament.
He also took his son on a global tour of football’s soccer-mad countries in his career, playing for three clubs in Brazil, two in Italy – where Thiago was born – and three in Spain.

Mazinho (left), Bebeto and Romario at the 1994 World Cup

 When you’ve grown up watching your father ply his trade for the likes of Vasco Da Gama, Fiorentina and Valencia, you pick up a few things along the way.
And when your mum was a volleyball player, it’s no wonder Thiago grew up with a sporting pedigree, as well as football knowledge coming out of his ears.
It’s in the genes. His cousin Rodrigo began his career with the Real Madrid youth team and now plays for Benfica as a striker. His younger brother Rafinha is at Barcelona with him and is a member of the Spanish club’s B side.
Both Thiago and Rafinha came up via the famous Barca academy at La Masia that produced the golden generation of Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andreas Iniesta.
Now that trio have set up an obstacle in Thiago’s career path which has frustrated the playmaker and has opened the door for potential buyers.
United are jostling at the front of the queue, along with Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich, as the Reds attempt to bring him to Old Trafford.
United were already on his case before Thiago’s first-half hat-trick for Spain against Italy in the Under-21 European Championship final brought him into the spotlight.
And his show in Jerusalem has given him a taste for regular football, instead of the bit-part he’s been forced to accept at the Nou Camp.
The World Cup in his dad’s homeland next summer has become a target and Thiago knows a prominent role every week is called for if he is to play a major part in helping Spain retain the trophy.
“I’ve always been patient. Now I dream of playing every game,” he said in the wake of Spain’s triumph at the Under-21s.
“Appearing in a World Cup would be a dream – the highest aspiration. I have to play regularly for my team and demonstrate I can be a key player.”
Despite Barca’s fall away in the Champions League last season that suggested the best team on the planet were creaking at the seams post-Guardiola, they walked the La Liga title and the Messi-Xavi-Iniesta triumvirate is unlikely to be breeched just yet.
But there has been a vacancy at Old Trafford for a Thiago-style schemer for some time.
Despite title wins in 2011 and 2013, the Reds football has lost some of its sheen. Both fans and critics alike believe United are not as watchable as they used to be.
They look at the Spanish-inspired quick and slick passing football of David Silva at City and Juan Mata at Chelsea and believe they’ve been left behind in the evolving modern style. Even Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick were outpassed and outplayed at Wembley by Barcelona in the 2011 Champions League final.
It was a chastising seminal moment for the Reds. But being unable to land a playmaker with the passing qualities developed in world-dominating Spain meant moving on from that Wembley wake-up call hasn’t really happened, despite still having enough spirit and top personnel to cut the mustard in the Premier League.
And even clubs who don’t have sugar daddies piling cash into the transfer budget cannot baulk at getting a player like Thiago, who has had his £80m buyout clause drastically reduced to £16m – because his playing time tumbled to less than 60 per cent player last season.
Such a reduction would normally flag up the warning signs?– but don’t forget Thiago is now only a snip because of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta.
In any other side that buyout clause would still be set at the highest figure possible.
New United boss David Moyes may have been linked with the midfield power of his old Everton player Marouane Fellaini, but it is the neat, sharp, incisive movement and link-up player of a Thiago that should be a priority.
Carrick’s guard in front of the back four would give licence for Thiago to quicken up United’s engine room and revive the high tempo.
Spanish tiki-taka style to add to the Reds English-based method and resolve could be a marriage made in heaven.
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