Sky Bet Championship club Barnsley have reportedly made an audacious attempt to sign ex-Manchester City and Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli.
The 30-year-old is currently a free agent after leaving Italian side Brescia in June.
Having played for some of the world's biggest clubs - with City, Liverpool, Inter and AC Milan among his former employers - could Balotelli really be set for sensational switch to South Yorkshire?
According to The Sun, Barnsley co-owners Chien Lee and Paul Conway contacted the Italian's agent Mino Raiola - well-known for representing stars such as Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic - to try and do a deal.
Well there's more to it than you may think.
While it would be a major step down from Balotelli's previous spells in English football, when he won the title with Man City in 2012 and returned to the Premier League for an unsuccessful spell at Anfield two years later, his once promising career is in danger of tailing off.
Recently he has been training with fourth-tier amateur team Franciacorta, so the Championship would hardly be a step down.
Then comes Barnsley's ownership, and how this idea will have even been mooted in the first place.
Balotelli's most recent period of success came during a three-year spell with Nice, where he scored 33 goals in 61 Ligue 1 appearances between 2013 and 2016.
The club is now owned by petrochemical billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, reputedly Britain's richest person. However, during Balotelli's time on the French Riviera, it was Lee and Conway's New City Capital that were in charge.
He arrived at Nice after two years in which he scored only twice in the league for Liverpool and AC Milan, but the move reignited the Italian's career and won him a move to the Stade Velodrome to join one of France's traditional powerhouse clubs, Marseille.
That will be the vision Tykes' owners presented to a man who is quickly running out of options if he wants to be playing for top European club again before his career is over.
Will Super Mario be pulling on the Barnsley red this weekend when they face Nottingham Forest in the Sky Bet Championship? Definitely not. Will he ever? Probably not.
But a story that on the face of it looks like clickbait, has more legs to it than most will realise. To dismiss it out of hand is folly, and to give it real consideration is well worth the indulgence of a bit of fun.
Cue Balotelli sliding in Cauley Woodrow deep in injury time for a stunning comeback win to clinch promotion to the Premier League in May.
Stranger things have happened. Actually, that would probably top the lot.
