Without Ronaldo or Adriano, the Flamengo soccer team announced on Saturday that they have hopes of signing Fred.

The Brazilian is currently playing for French club Lyon, and has a contract that extends to April 2009. The player is on vacation in Brazil and upon his arrival back home, he expressed his desire to return to play in Brazil.

Before Flamengo, Fluminense was the first team to officially declare their interest in bringing the player back to Brazil, followed by Cruzeiro.

Flamengo, however, seemed to get the upper hand in salary that the forward would receive.

Since it looks like Ibson and Jonatas will no longer continue to play for Flamengo, a large chuck of money will be available to attract Fred to Flamengo. Both Ibson and Jonatas are at Flamengo on loans from Porto (Portugal) and Espanyol (Spain), respectively. Flamengo has declared that they do not intend on renewing either player's loan.

Fred is a native of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais where Cruzeiro is located and Fred has a certain affinity for the team.

Upon his arrival, Fred claimed that if he were to return to Brazil, he would give priority to Cruzeiro.

He spoke personally with Cruzeiro's team president, Zeze Perrela, to ask the president to try to negotiate his liberation of contractual obligation to Lyon.

But Fluminense also is attractive for Fred whose good friend Alexandre Faria works at Fluminense as the coordinator of soccer .Should Fred really return, Flamengo, Fluminense and Cruzeiro will do almost anything to bring the star to their club.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2008)