Former River Plate, Valencia and Argentina legend Pablo Aimar is ready to make a comeback to professional football - at the club where it all began over 20 years ago.
Aimar started playing as a teenager for Estudiantes de Rio Cuarto, located in Cordoba province and the hometown of the playmaker.
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At the tender age of 16 he moved to Buenos Aires to join the River youth ranks, and went on to star in Spain and Portugal in a career that won him countless admirers across the world of football.
One of those is none other than Lionel Messi, who has affirmed on more than one occasion that El Payaso was one of his idols growing up.
Aimar hung up his boots in 2015 after a short second spell with River was ruined by injury and fitness issues, limiting him to just two appearances.
But two years down the line and at 37, he has been included in his boyhood club's plans for 2017.
While neither Estudiantes nor Aimar have publicly confirmed his comeback, the Rio Cuarto club have included their most famous son in their provisional squad for this year's Copa Argentina, the nation's national cup competition that involves 99 teams from across the pyramid.
The veteran star has regularly trained in the past with Estudiantes, and his brother Andres also plays for the club located in the Federal A, Argentina's regionalised third tier.
It is also not the first time he has been approached to rejoin, after club directors' attempts to include Aimar in their plans during 2016 fell short of sealing a return - a setback that did not impede Estudiantes from winning promotion at the end of last year.
