JJ Gabriel Has One Man Utd Exit Route Ruled Out by Common Decency
Barcelona sporting director Deco applied that rarest of things in modern soccer, a semblance of common decency, while ruling his club out of the race for Manchester United’s coveted 15-year-old JJ Gabriel.
While the former Portugal international accepted that speculation over a teenager is “normal” these days, he refrained from accelerating the rumormill by pointing toward the human side of this story.
Gabriel must be the world’s most widely discussed soccer player who almost none of the general public has seen play. This is to be expected for someone born three months after the 2010 World Cup final, who is understandably yet to make a single senior appearance.
The attacking midfielder has, however, been the talk of scouting circles for years, constantly playing several age categories up while seamlessly disguising the leap. Gabriel made his first two appearances for United’s U-21 side this season, having a hand in four goals during just two hours of play.
Those in charge of Gabriel’s bright future are very much aware of his talent and consider the meat grinder that is this modern iteration of Manchester United to not be the most fertile breeding ground for the teenager. The interest in the wantaway forward is spread across Europe—Bayern Munich’s sporting director confirmed as much—but Barcelona are to have no part in the bidding.
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Deco Echoes Michael Carrick in JJ Gabriel Stance
Manchester United manager Michael Carrick, whose own son is only a year older than Gabriel in the club’s academy, has taken the most sensible stance amid this transfer storm by pointing toward the quickly forgotten reality that the subject of all this attention is a 15-year-old boy.
“I think we’ve got to be really careful of the whole situation,” Carrick stressed. “He’s a young boy, and the biggest thing for me, and for the club, is his welfare, wellbeing and exposure. I think all of us have to be really conscious of that in this situation.”
Deco refreshingly took a similar stance. “There’s nothing to say about this boy,” Barcelona’s transfer chief told a news conference this week. “It’s normal we always have players linked with us. There’s a huge market for that, even when they are young.
“We are not interested in any player in his situation. I’m not sure what’s happening, and if he’s still a Manchester United player. We are not involved in that. First of all, we need to understand how the situation is before we try to do something. To speak about young, teenage players, it is not our business.”
How Is JJ Gabriel Allowed to Move Clubs?
Gabriel is not old enough to register to vote, drive a moped or buy a vape, but he can seemingly be shopped around the continental elite.
The England U-17 international will have to wait until he turns 16 on Oct. 6 before actually signing any legal documents, but is able to consider a life abroad thanks to his potential for European Union citizenship.
Gabriel’s father Joe O’Cearuill is a former Republic of Ireland international who reportedly didn’t have his son take on the family name to make sure he was more “marketable,” but is very much willing to call upon those Celtic roots at the embassy. His mother’s Greek-Cypriot heritage could also help him join a club in the EU. Whether any of that should be public knowledge is another matter entirely, and one Barcelona won’t be exploring.
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