At the ceremony of Ronaldo's eldest son, Mini Ronaldo, stood next to a short teammate who was unknown at the time, holding the number 10 shirt with the name "Gabriel" printed on the back. Now, Mini Ro has been with his father to Riyadh in the Saudi Arabia Professional League for several years, and this Gabriel has already attracted the attention of fans, his name is JJ · Gabriel!
Gabriel was only 11 years old when he took the photo with Mini Ronaldo, and Manchester United arranged for the two to appear together with a hidden meaning - this could be the future Ronaldo and Messi! It's just that most people didn't think of this at that time, and they only focused on the son of Ronaldo, who was more famous.
JJ· Gabriel's full name is Joseph ·Junior Andreou Gabriel·· Andreou Gabriel, and it is clear that he has Latin America blood. Although he only turns 14 this week, Gabriel has been called up to United's under-18 squad for training and playing!
On social media, fans refer to Gabriel as the "Kid Messi" and hail him as the next prince of the Red Devils' youth system, and he is quite optimistic about his future.
Previously, the 13-year-old Gabriel had already played in Manchester United's Under-16 youth team. Chinese fans have seen him, but perhaps they don't recognize him, because he traveled with the team to the Hong Kong SAR to participate in a youth invitational tournament, where he scored two goals and provided one assist in two games, and was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, and the famous Berbatov personally presented the award to him. At that time, Gabriel stole the limelight from Rooney's eldest son, Kaye · Rooney.
Gabriel scored a hat-trick in Manchester United's Under-16s against Newcastle United this season. As he looks to be outperforming the Under-16s, the United coach has now decided to make him jump another level and move into the higher youth teams. Back in April, the United Kingdom Daily Mail revealed that United invited Gabriel to warm up with the Under-18s ahead of the Premier Cup final against Manchester City, and he even received a winner's medal.
Nike, an international sports brand, also took a fancy to Gabriel early and signed a sponsorship deal with him. Barça star Yamal is also aware of Gabriel, posing for a photo with him at an event and gifting his signed shirt to the Manchester United youngster.
It is rumored that Barcelona is also eyeing Gabriel, and once gave him free tickets to watch the game at Camp Nou, and asked the whole team to meet with him, Sima Zhao's heart is well known. In Gabriel's early videos, he often trains in Barcelona's No.10 or No.11 shirt, and Messi and Neymar may be one of his idols. Of course, he also wore the Real Madrid shirt, and a boy of that age obviously admired the big teams in the major leagues.
Another star who has paid close attention to Gabriel is Bayer Leverkusen's Netherlands right-back Frimpong, the 23-year-old who has repeatedly praised Manchester United's talent on social media. It is reported that the two have a common private one-on-one special training coach, which is the reason for their familiarity.
Of course, the story of being too big and not necessarily good happens in international football from time to time. The young Gabriel still has to work hard to make his way into the first team and become a star. He's also going to have to withstand the temptations off the pitch and not get disoriented or make serious mistakes like Ravel· Morris, Mason · Greenwood.