Article from The Athletic
They called it “the project”, and what it lacked in branding panache, it more than made up for in ambition. Gabriel Martinelli was just 14 years old and looked younger. He was pint-sized and slender, a “butterfly fillet”, to borrow the charming Portuguese phrase. He had already walked an atypical path, swapping the bright lights of the Corinthians academy for Brazil’s bush leagues midway through his development. He was a small fish in a small pond — not, on the face of it, an obvious candidate for the big time. Yet he and his entourage (his father, Joao, and his two agents) had their sights set high.
“I’m going to play in Europe,” the teenager would tell anyone who would listen, and while that dream hardly marked him out as unique, the relentless, strategic pursuit of it did.
Ituano FC, a modest club in the state of Sao Paulo, was to be just the first stepping stone. In the first instance, there were training schedules, meetings and detailed projections for the route ahead. Before long, he would have his own nutritionist and a special diet. Later, came extra sessions of perception training, and the kind of injury-prevention work usually reserved for senior players. Eventually, as Arsenal worked their way to the top of a lengthy list of suitors, a private English teacher would round out a battalion of support staff preparing the forward for the future.
It is tempting, after his two-goal coming-out party against Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, to view Martinelli as an overnight sensation, a kid who appeared from nowhere to make his case for a place in Unai Emery’s starting XI. But for those who have followed his progress closely, this is merely the first dividend paid out on four years of careful planning and, if Martinelli has his way, just a staging post on his journey to the top of the game.
It is perhaps appropriate that Martinelli was born in Guarulhos, the sprawling Sao Paulo suburb most famous for its airport.
Like many Brazilians, his formative experiences in football came on the futsal court. It was in this format of the game that he first impressed at Corinthians, switching to “futebol de campo” at the age of 10. Big clubs such as Corinthians have a gravitational pull within the Brazilian youth system. Youngsters who impress for regional sides are often lured by the promise of better coaching, more modern facilities and, eventually, greater cachet on the national scene. It is highly unusual for a promising player to go the other way, unless he has been released. But when Joao Martinelli, a toolmaker by trade, retired and moved his family to the sleepy town of Itu, it was decided that it would make more sense for Gabriel to play for the local team than schlep back and forth to the state capital. It would have been a round-trip of around three hours on a good day, and there aren’t many good days on Sao Paulo’s heaving roads. One trial later, he was incorporated into the Ituano academy, and it was not long before he was making a name for himself.
“He made a great first impression,” recalls Luiz Antonio, Martinelli’s coach at under-15, under-17 and under-20 level. “He was a year younger and a lot smaller than the other kids, so we didn’t use him in every game at the start. But he would always come on and score, and when he did make the starting line-up, he never left it. He was a boy with huge technical ability, and real desire — to train, to score goals. He was a cut above the normal.” Even in his first weeks at the club, his coaches were aware that Martinelli had lofty goals for his career. “When he arrived here, we were told that he was ‘the boy with the project,'” says Luiz Antonio. He describes a young man who was “very focused, very determined” in his approach, despite his tender years.
“He was very ambitious and showed that element of his personality in so many ways. He likes to push himself to the maximum, straining for excellence at all times. He would be annoyed to lose a training game, for example. Some players in Brazil still have a lot to learn when it comes to competitiveness and high standards, but not Gabriel.”
That mentality was echoed in his private life. Even as he reached adolescence, the usual outside temptations were of no interest whatsoever.
“He goes to bed early, doesn’t go out, doesn’t drink, and has a girlfriend,” his agent, Marcos Casseb, told Globo Esporte. Even his one forgivable vice — ice cream — was phased out in the name of healthy eating. On the pitch, the goals flowed. There were 64 in 94 games across the age groups, including a memorable hat-trick against a Sao Paulo under-17 side full of Brazil youth internationals. “At that moment, I thought, ‘There’s no way this kid won’t play at the highest level,'” Luiz Antonio remembers. “I knew then that he was not going to be at Ituano for long.”
For a time, it looked possible that Martinelli’s European wish would be granted before he even played a professional match. He had been invited to train with Manchester United on four separate occasions between 2015 and 2017, posing for photos with Paul Pogba and even appearing as a substitute in an under-18 game against Lincoln City. But a concrete offer never materialised, and so Martinelli knuckled down. He made his first-team debut for Ituano in March 2018 and then shone for their under-20 side in the Copinha youth tournament — Brazilian football’s annual festival of emerging talent. By the start of this year, he had done enough to convince Vinicius Bergantin, Ituano’s head coach, that he was worthy of a regular place in the senior team.
“I remember his first start in the Sao Paulo state championship, against Sao Bento,” Bergantin says. “Before the game, he told one of the coaches that he would score with his very first touch. That didn’t happen but he was decisive. He got a Sao Bento player sent off with his dribbling ability, then set up a goal, and then scored with the last kick of the match. It showed me that he wasn’t just talk. It was his very first start and he didn’t feel the pressure at all.”
That would be the first clip in a highlight reel that grew longer with each passing week. There were instinctive strikes against Red Bull Brasil and Ponte Preta. Against Guarani, he stood his man up on the edge of the box and whipped a shot into the far corner. Against Bragantino, he scored a tap-in and then added a glorious second, motoring forward from the edge of his own box, beating two opponents and finishing after a deft one-two. Those were the moments of obvious inspiration.
There was also a commitment to pressing opposition defences, and to moving Ituano up the pitch with intelligent runs and smart link-up play. He has admitted that he does not enjoy playing with his back to goal but it is clear he is a team player, first and foremost.
“He was our main escape valve,” says Bergantin. “He has real quality in the final third, whether it’s setting up goals or scoring them himself, but he also helped the team to close down spaces when we were out of possession.
“There is a real lucidity to his game; he didn’t play like a 17-year-old when he was here with us. He makes the decisions you’d expect from a 27-year-old. He is old beyond his years out on the pitch. He plays with clarity and common sense.”
Martinelli models his game on Cristiano Ronaldo but a more relevant paradigm from Arsenal’s point of view might just be Roberto Firmino.
There is no guarantee that a player plucked from outside Brazil’s top flight will be able to cut it at the very highest level, but Firmino proved that is talent out there for those with the vision to see it. (It is worth pointing out that Ituano are in Serie D at national level, whereas Firmino played in Serie B for Figueirense.)
In terms of style, too, there are similarities between the players. Martinelli may be most comfortable operating from the flank, cutting in on his favourite right foot, but he, like Firmino, is able to play in a vast array of positions in the final third. Willing to as well as able to, which also underlines a shared selflessness. “I used him in various roles,” says Luiz Antonio. “As a winger, as a wide forward, as a striker with freedom to roam. Even as a No 10, an attacking midfielder. He did it all here. He never needed too much guidance, tactically. Gabriel is a good listener and easy to work with.”
Brazil coach Tite, who called Martinelli up for a training match against his senior Selecao squad before the Copa America this summer, would no doubt agree with those sentiments. And those who know him best are already predicting the 18-year-old will have a long, fruitful career in the canary-yellow jersey.
“I truly believe he will play for Brazil and play in World Cups,” says Bergantin. “Knowing his potential, and the head he has on his shoulders, I think that’s a natural path for him. The speed of his development has been absurd.”
If those predictions are borne out, Arsenal will feel justified in feeling fairly smug. These are early days but already, he has shown glimpses of the talent that prompted no fewer than 25 clubs to contact his representatives before he plumped for north London. A brace at home to a second-tier side in the Carabao Cup might not be reason for hysteria on its own but if Martinelli has proved one thing over his career so far, it’s that he will not be slow to push on from here.
“Hopefully, Arsenal have plans for him that match his ambitions,” concludes Bergantin, bringing us full circle.
The question, ultimately, might not be what he can do for Emery, but what Emery can do for him.
That is just the nature of “the project”.
Gabriel Martinelli always wants more. He wants the world and he wants it now.