The K-League side's attacking midfielder Fabricio was the player who first put Merrick onto one-time Victory star Fred four years ago. It was to prove a hugely successful signing as Steve Panopoulos told au.fourfourtwo.com.

"When Ernie came out to Brazil in February 2006, my business partner Marcio Bittencourt had just brought Lothar Matthaeus out to Brazil to become coach of Atletico Paranaense.

"We had dinner with Lothar, myself, Ernie, Marcio and a director of Atletico PR called Alexandre."

Panopoulos, a former South Melbourne NSL star, played for South at the 2000 World Club Championships in Rio de Janeiro. He returned to Brazil some years later and he has since become involved as an owner/director of player management firm Stellar Brasil. The company also look after Manchester United's Brazilian twins Fabio and Rafael.

"They invited us down to Atletico to look at players," he said. "We went to lunch with Alexandre and Fabricio who was the star player of Atletico PR at the time.

"We talked about how Ernie was looking for a skilful, quick attacking midfielder and Fabricio told us about Fred. He told Ernie that he could sign him with his eyes closed as he was a gun player and had played with him for a long time at America MG.

"At that point we started following Fred and we saw that he really was quality and that led us to signing him to Victory."

Fred duly became a key figure who helped galvanised the club to a season two championship before later leaving for MLS club DC United.

Meanwhile Fabricio - a long-time friend of Fred - went on to play for Al Khor in Qatar before switching to the K-League powerhouse.

Panopoulos, currently in Saudi Arabia checking on the form of another Brazilian and former Phoenix star Felipe, says Fabricio is one player to watch out for tonight.

He added: "Fabricio is a left footed attacking midfielder, whose attributes are his great vision and superb shooting power. He is deadly from free-kicks and long distance."

And he's not the only foreign player looming as a dangerman. Seongnam impressed in their first ACL group match defeating J-League side Kawasaki Frontale 2-0 with goals from Colombian Mauricio Molina and Montenegro's Dzenan Radoncic.