Ħamrun Spartans had reached out to football stars Mario Balotelli, Alexandre Pato and Yaya Sanogo but none of the players will be coming to Malta.

Speaking to Lovin Malta, a spokesperson from the team confirmed that contact was made with the players but any discussion of bringing them over to Spartans was quickly ruled out.

“We are going to bring two players, a central defender and an attacker, and we started searching with Pato and Balotelli.”

“But Balottelli signed with Monza and Pato is in contact with a team in the MLS,” he said.

Balotelli made his return to football with Silvio Berlusconi’s Serie B team Monza last week, scoring his debut goal just four minutes into the match.

“It’s true that we reached out to Sanogo and tried to bring him over, but being the good player he is, he’ll take his chances with another league,” he continued.

Ħamrun Spartans has undergone a cultural and operational shift ever since real estate mogul Joseph Portelli took the reins over summer. The attempt to sign top notch players to the team is an exercise in the club’s evaluation process which aims to elevate and improve the process of signing foreign talent.

“We’ve set up a technical unit to see how we can bring players to us. We decided to do things differently and not stick to what has been done in the past,” he said.

Ħamrun Spartans currently sit atop of the BOV Premier League with 28 points.

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