Pato
Pato moved to Tianjin Quanjian from Villarreal in January. Getty

Former Chelsea striker Alexandre Pato is open to a reunion with Diego Costa at Tianjin Quanjian. The Brazilian is convinced that his current club will make a high-profile addition in the coming summer transfer window but doesn't know whether Costa will be the chosen one.

Costa was heavily linked with a move to Tianjin Quanjian during the January transfer window after been left out of the Chelsea squad for a 3-0 victory over Leicester City amid a row with Antonio Conter over his fitness.

The owner of the Chinese outfit, Shu Yuhui, revealed that his club had made an offer to sign the Chelsea striker only days before that row, but suggested that they would not make a new move for the star in the summer.

"I made an appointment with [agent Pedro] Mendes and he came to my hometown to visit me. At that time, we were interested in signing Costa. PSG told us [Edinson] Cavani would only be allowed to leave in June, even though the player himself was willing to join us." Shu said. "The same can be said for Costa because Chelsea would only let him leave in June. However, the new season of the Chinese Super League will almost reach the halfway stage in June, we can't wait that long."

Last month Cadena Ser reported Costa will probably make the move to the Far East in the summer, adding that he had an offer from an unnamed Chinese club worth €85m (£73.6m) to Chelsea and €30m a year to him.

Costa himself failed to calm those stories earlier this week during an interview with Cadena Ser, saying he is currently happy at Chelsea but refusing to rule out a move to China at the end of the season.

"In life, anything can happen and I do not close the door on anything. In football you are worth what you are worth when you are good. And why not? But right now I am good at Chelsea... I have two years left on my contract and I intend to fulfil them. But you never know. It's not impossible to reject it because there are things to assess. You have to think about it all. I do not rule out anything. If they come with something for Chelsea and the club tell me to go... I can go to China or elsewhere."

Pato made the move from Villarreal to Tianjin Quanjian during the winter and has encouraged his new side to renew their attempts to sign his former Chelsea teammate asap.

"I already played with Diego Costa at Chelsea. He is a good teammate, he could help us a lot. But I know nothing [about his possible arrival]. What I think is that this summer we will surely sign an important, world-class player," Pato told Marca.

"I do not know [if it would be Costa]. I just play. [Manager] Fabio Cannavaro and the president are the ones who deal with these things. I am honest. I only know that right now the foreign players that we are in the team are me, Axel Witsel, Geuvanio, Junior Moraes and Kwon Kyun-won. These are the ones we can play now."