Down South: Jonathan Calleri kicks off life at Sao Paulo in phenomenal style

Jonathan Calleri's time at Sao Paulo will be short. That much is certain. What remains to be seen, however, is what the Argentinian forward will make of his loan spell in Brazil's most populous city.

Just how Calleri ended up at Sao Paulo is a story in itself. At the end of 2015, on the heels of helping Boca Juniors capture its 31st Primera Division title, the 22-year-old was nearing a move to Inter Milan. He told TyC Sports: "The negotiations are advanced." Daniel Angelici, Boca's president, subsequently confessed: "We will close the deal."

Boca never closed the deal. While the failed transfer was complicated due to the restrictions Italian football places on non-European Union players, third-party ownership is ultimately responsible for the move falling through.

As Tim Vickery, BBC's South American football correspondent, explained to Globo, Calleri was sold to Deportivo Maldonado by an investment fund who owned the player's transfer rights. Deportivo Maldonado is a very small club in Uruguay that operates by, as Bloomberg put it: "trading elite South American players who never appear in a game." The business model essentially eases the tax burden of investors who own transfer rights, which is all too common in South American football.

Simply put, Calleri joined Sao Paulo on loan from Deportivo Maldonado until June 30, 2016, despite never taking the pitch for the Uruguayan club.

Against that backdrop, Calleri is enjoying a phenomenal start to life at Sao Paulo that's surely not going unnoticed by Inter nor other European giants.

In the first leg of Sao Paulo's tie against Club Deportivo Universidad Cesar Vallejo in the Copa Libertadores' qualifying round, Calleri required less than 10 minutes to score on his debut for the Brazilian club, allowing Edgardo Bauza's side to escape Peru with a 1-1 draw that bodes very well for its chances of progression.

The goal featured the qualities that make Calleri such a threat in front of goal and that have fueled the large amount of interest in his eye for goal, as he shook off centre-back Luis Cardoza to win the ball before chipping 'keeper Salomon Libman with his first touch in the coolest of fashions.

Sao Paulo should've won the fixture handily. The club had a goal wrongly disallowed, fell behind to a once-in-a-lifetime strike from Alejandro Hohberg, and outshot Cesar Vallejo 30-9 while maintaining 71 percent of possession. Yet it was because of Calleri that Bauza's squad returns to Brazil holding a slight advantage.

Three days later, Calleri was at it again, scoring two goals in Sao Paulo's 4-0 thrashing of Agua Santa in the Campeonato Paulista. Both goals were the result of precision-perfect headers.

Cesar Vallejo and Agua Santa don't hold a candle to Serie A clubs, but three goals in 99 minutes can't go unnoticed when there's so much hype around a player.

If Calleri can continue to leave defenders for dead and score with relative ease at Sao Paulo, there'll be no shortage of European suitors knocking at Deportivo Maldonado's door.