Real Madrid have moved to the front of the chase for JJ Gabriel. Fabrizio Romano, reporting this week, says the club has already met Gabriel’s representatives, informed Manchester United of its interest, and feels “growing confidence” of landing the forward in January.
That is not the outcome Gabriel is said to have wanted. Multiple reports since September pointed to Barcelona as his first choice.
But Barcelona sporting director Deco closed the door publicly on 24 September.
“We are not interested in any player in his situation,” Deco told Mundo Deportivo.
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Deco’s intervention left Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich as the live suitors, and only one of them has pushed as hard as Madrid.
The day he was supposed to make history
Gabriel’s status at United collapsed in a matter of hours in mid-September. The Telegraph, via Yahoo Sports, reported that the then-15-year-old formally requested to leave on 15 September, one day before United were due to face Brighton in the Carabao Cup.
Michael Carrick had been preparing to put Gabriel on the bench. A short cameo against Brighton would have made him Manchester United’s youngest-ever player, breaking a record held by David Gaskell at 16 years and 19 days in the 1956 Charity Shield.
He did not play. He has not trained with United since, and spent his 16th birthday on 6 October, the date of birth listed on the club’s own U18 squad page, away from Manchester.
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The passport that unlocks January
Brexit rules normally block English teenagers from joining EU clubs before their 18th birthday. Gabriel’s workaround is a Cypriot passport, available to him through his Greek-Cypriot mother; his Irish father provides a second route.
TeamTalk reports the Cypriot paperwork is close to being finalized. Once it clears, the compensation Manchester United can expect is capped by FIFA’s rules for Category I academies, which TeamTalk puts at £350,000, a token sum for a player four of Europe’s biggest clubs have been tracking.
Not every suitor is comfortable with the asking price on the player side.
“Bayern are sceptical about their chances because of his ‘XXL’ financial demands, his salary would be over €1m plus an ‘exorbitant’ signing-on fee,” Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg said, as cited by TeamTalk.
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Gabriel remains a registered Manchester United player, and Sky Sports reports the club will consider legal action if he leaves for a European side via the FIFA minors route. His next planned United fixture before the walkout was Bournemouth in the Premier League on 25 October, a date that will now come and go without him in a United shirt.
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