In recent years, few EFL stories have captured the imagination of worldwide football fans more than Blackburn Rovers forward Ben Brereton being called up to play for the Chile national team.

You will seldom find British players going off to a South American country to play for their national side, which is why the tale of Brereton playing for the birth country of his mother - despite being born in Stoke-on-Trent - is so amazing, as well as the way he came to the attention of Chileans via the video game Football Manager, becoming Ben Brereton Diaz in the process.

A few years prior to his Chile bow though, Brereton had joined Blackburn in a £7 million deal from Nottingham Forest, whose academy he had joined and graduated from after spells at Manchester United and Stoke City in his youth.

At times, the money that Rovers had spent on Brereton was looking like it was wasted millions - he scored just two goals in his first two seasons at Ewood Park from 45 appearances, and it was only in the 2020-21 campaign, where he scored seven goals and notched four assists in the Championship, where he started to really show his potential.

Then came the first Chile appearance in June 2021 and the first five months of the 2021-22 campaign was where top flight clubs really started to take note of Brereton, as coupled with his new-found notoriety he went on a scoring blitz of 20 goals in 24 matches, which is something we had never seen of him since his emergence into the senior game.

He ended up with 22 goals from 37 league appearances at the end of it, but Premier League teams - and clubs from overseas - had started to take notice, with offers from Fulham and Nice rejected late on in the summer transfer window last year, with Leeds United also having an enquiry knocked back.

By last year's explosive standards, Brereton hasn't been as good in 2022-23 under Jon Dahl Tomasson, although he did score nine times in his opening 20 matches of the league campaign, which only kept the admiring glances coming.

That is perhaps why La Liga outfit Villarreal have been in talks with the 23-year-old in January in regards to moving to Spain on a free transfer at the end of the season, although contrary to what some reporters have claimed, no deal has been signed as Blackburn need to be notified - as of now that has not happened.

What is potentially alarming though to Brereton's potential suitors - and Blackburn fans that want the club to finish in the play-offs this season - is his current goalscoring drought.

His last goal came on November 5 against Huddersfield Town, but his following eight league appearances have not seen him hit the back of the net - although he has notched three assists in that time.

With Rovers unable to sign a striker in January, Brereton not being able to score is the last thing that Tomasson needs, but when he went through on goal after four minutes on Monday evening against Wigan Athletic, he was probably odds-on to break his duck.

However, his unpressured shot went straight into the arms of Ben Amos, and that was his only effort of the match as he put in another disappointing showing - not the first one in recent times.

There has been plenty of interest in Brereton over the last 12 months - Leeds, West Ham United, Newcastle United and Everton have all been recent admirers of the versatile forward - but perhaps these Premier League clubs are going to be put off by his alarming recent form.

It's clear that Brereton does actually know where the back of the net is - you cannot fluke the record he had in the first half of last season - but if he wants a number of options on the table for his signature at the end of the season, then he is going to have to start scoring again and quickly.