Blackburn table £20m bid for samba star Ronaldinho

Ronaldinho, the Brazilian footballer who made his name with Barcelona, could be about to sign for Blackburn Rovers after the English club confirmed they had made a £20m offer for the 30-year-old midfielder.

Ronaldinho is currently with AC Milan but has struggled to win a place in the starting XI this season and quit the club's winter training camp in Dubai last week to return to Brazil. It had been suggested that Ronaldinho, who's played 88 times for his country, was negotiating a contract with his old club Gremio, but that was before Blackburn stepped in with their audacious offer.

Rovers' new Indian owners, Venky's, are reportedly pulling out all the stops to sign Ronaldinho on a three-year deal. "He is keen to play in the EPL [English Premier League] and I think that goes in our favour," Venky's chairmain Anuradha Desai told BBC Radio Lancashire. Asked to elaborate on the contract offered to Ronaldinho, Desai explained: "To be precise: €7.6m (£6.5m) for the first year and about €8.5m (£7.2m) for the second and third years."

If Ronaldinho signed for Rovers it would be a remarkable coup for the north-west club, only three weeks after they sacked manager Sam Allardyce for a run of results that saw Blackburn slip towards the relegation zone. Desai justified the dismissal by telling fans: "We want the club to go up and develop and we want it to perform much better."

And the bid for the samba star is not the only big name move brewing in Lancashire. Rovers are also thought to have made inquiries about David Beckham, who could be heading back to the Premier League on loan from LA Galaxy.

The signing of Ronaldinho – the Fifa World Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005 – would certainly represent intent on behalf of Rovers, as Allardyce's replacement Steve Kean acknowledged: "That is something that puts us on the map in terms of trying to bring players of that stature to the club," he said, adding: "If any Premier League manager was asked if they wanted to sign someone who has been World Player of the Year twice they would be interested." ·