Former Brazil international Rivaldo says he hopes his son Rivaldinho will follow in his footsteps by playing for a club in Serie A and revealed he has already turned down an offer from a third-division club in Italy.
Rivaldo, 44, spent two seasons at AC Milan but would be happy to see his son sign for any of Serie A's biggest clubs.
But he believes his son should not have to start off as low as the third tier to prove himself, with an offer from Sud Tirol on the table.
Rivaldo, who won the Ballon d'Or and was named FIFA World Player of the Year in 1999, told Tuttomercatoweb: "It's true, they have called me, but my son is under contract with Internacional and it's difficult to leave them to join a team in the Italian third division. We respect Sud Tirol and we thank them for their interest, but he doesn't want to leave Brazil for the Italian third division.
"He would like to play in Italy, in Serie A or in Serie B, but not in the third division. Moving there from Internacional is not a good solution."
Rivaldo nevertheless does not want a bigger club to sign his son just because of his name.
"I don't want to lobby for him or promote him," he said. "He has got to work and attract attention by himself, not because he's my son. He's a good player -- a forward who is different to me since he plays deeper. He can do well.
"Milan, Inter, Roma, Juventus, Lazio -- all of the big Italian clubs would be nice, but my son has a lot of work to do to show himself off and demonstrate his talent. Let's take things slowly."
One side who could be well suited to Rivaldinho would be Pisa, who have just been promoted to Serie B under the guidance of Rivaldo's former Milan teammate Gennaro 'Rino' Gattuso.
"Rino's a great person so why not?" Rivaldo said. "It would be great. But as I've said, I don't like to push my son and I'm not going to call any coaches. If it happens, we'll see. Certainly I've got a great memory of Rino, though. He's really great."
