When Gabriel was a teenager at Brazilian side Avai, he lost someone very dear to him. “It was one of his close friends; a kid who had been brought up like a brother,” explains former team-mate Marquinhos, now director of football at Avai.
“Before kick-off, I asked him if he was sure he was fine to play. We all felt a bit uncomfortable with the situation because we could imagine what he was going through. But he said, ‘No, I’m fine. This is what my friend would have wanted. He loved seeing me play on TV and he’ll be watching over me today’.”
Avai won 2-0, with Gabriel scoring from a corner. He celebrated with an emotional tribute to his friend. “The whole squad crowded around him, hugging him,” says Marquinhos. “The fans would have run on to embrace him too, if they were allowed to, because everyone at the club knew what he had gone through that week.”
Arsenal’s new centre-half is still just 22 but continues to carry himself with the assurance of a far older player. In 2019-20, his dominant performances at the heart of Lille’s defence saw L’Equipe dub him “Le Colosse Bresilien” — The Brazilian Colossus. His dramatic progress is founded on a resolute strength of character.
“What happened showed his personality — and his commitment to the cause,” Marquinhos tells The Athletic. “This was an 18-, 19-year-old kid, showing a strength of character that most 30-year-olds couldn’t match. It was a really serious thing for him but he was so strong.
“He doesn’t let anything get him down. He’s a golden kid.”
It was the coronation which turned into a rout. In April 2019, Paris Saint-Germain travelled to second-placed Lille needing just a point to become champions. At half-time, all seemed to be going to plan: the two sides were drawing 1-1 and Thomas Tuchel’s men were poised to start the celebrations. The second half, however, saw an avalanche of goals for the home side and Lille ran out 5-1 winners.
For Gabriel, it was another day of particular significance. He came on as a substitute shortly before half-time, when the scores were tied. A storming second-half display was crowned in the 71st minute when he rose highest to nod home Lille’s fourth goal — his first in French football. The cross was swung in by Nicolas Pepe. As he ran up to deliver the dead ball, Gabriel’s father Marcelo shouted from the stands, “Nico, put it on Gabi’s head!”
Pepe duly did and Gabriel’s feet have barely touched the ground since.
“It was a dream moment,” says the defender. “Before the match, the coach names the team and I am not starting. I see great players on the other side, those of PSG, and I had never been even once on the bench in front of them.
“The coach calls me three times to come on and I was so focused on the game that I didn’t hear a thing! My father was in the stands with my cousins; everyone was very, very happy that I scored. It’s a truly unforgettable day.”
Gabriel, Lille, Paris Saint-Germain, goal
Gabriel celebrates his goal against Paris Saint-Germain (Photo: Sylvain Lefevre/Getty Images)
Now Gabriel will be reunited with Pepe as the man Mikel Arteta has earmarked to bring some solidity to Arsenal’s struggling defence.
It is the culmination of a considerable journey. Gabriel hails from the district of Pirituba, north-west of Sao Paulo. Aged just 14, he travelled over 400 miles to join Avai in Florianopolis. By 19, he had moved to Europe and Lille — a year later, he was on loan in freezing Zagreb. By comparison, the short trip from north east France to north London will feel relatively straightforward.
Diogo Fernandes is currently Avai’s first-team coordinator but was head of their academy when Gabriel arrived for his initial trial. “What stood out immediately was his profile,” Fernandes tells The Athletic. “He was left-footed and tall for his age. He had real stature. He was still extremely raw at that time; he was a diamond who needed a lot of polishing.”
Gabriel, however, was reluctant to move. The trial was his first time away from home — and he struggled. When he returned to Sao Paulo to collect his belongings, he explained to his father that he wanted to stay at home. Marcelo, a truck-driving delivery man, issued his son with an ultimatum: If you don’t go back, you will come to work with me every morning. Suddenly, Florianopolis didn’t seem so bad.
While Gabriel arrived at Avai billed as a left-back his size and power meant they quickly repurposed him as a central defender. His idols were Robinho, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho but with his loping gait, he accepted a need to adopt a more conservative style. “I really like this style of play but dribbling is not for me,” he has since admitted.
In those early years, it was his attitude rather than his ability that shone. A fire burned below his calm exterior. “He had to have a lot of determination because, honestly, when he first came here, he wasn’t the kind of player who enchants you at the very first glance,” explains Fernandes. “He was also born right at the end of the year, in December 1997, so he was nearly a year younger than some of the other kids in his age group. It meant he had to show great persistence and mature quickly. He had to battle to improve and his focus helped him a lot.”
“He was a calm boy, and a very good listener,” adds Marquinhos. “He was always happy to swap ideas, ask questions, especially with the guys who played in his position. But he also wanted to learn from the players who had spent time at big clubs. I had played with Neymar at Santos, for example, and he would often ask me about that. I knew Neymar when he was around the same age as Gabriel was then, so we discussed his journey.”
Unlike Neymar, Gabriel did not always appear destined for greatness but a theme of his career is that when opportunities have arisen, he has taken them. “There’s one story I always remember. It was fundamental in his development,” says Fernandes. “When he moved up into the under-17 age group, we had another very talented centre-back, Marcao (now of Turkey’s Galatasaray). Marcao was a year older than Gabriel, and so Gabriel was his back-up. We had a Copa do Brasil game against Flamengo but Marcao didn’t go to school in the week leading up to the match. We really put a big emphasis on studying, so we dropped him. The player’s dad was so annoyed, he took him out of the academy for three months.
“Gabriel got an unexpected opportunity and seized it — and he stayed in the team even when Marcao returned. It meant that he had three years as a starter: at under-15 level, as one of the youngest players in the under-17 side, and then as one of the more experienced players. There was no interruption. I think that really accelerated his development.
“When he hit 17 or so, he started to turn into a different kind of player. He became a reference point and started to stand out compared to other centre-backs. By the time he started in the under-20 side, he already had a certain status within the club. People saw that he was a real player. He started to be observed by Brazil scouts and was later called up to the under-20 team.”
It’s easy to see what appealed to the national set-up. Left-sided defenders are always at a premium — especially ones who stand at almost 6ft 3in. However, Gabriel never relied purely on his size. “He wasn’t a hardman centre-back,” says Diogo Fernandes. “He was more of a technical player. His positioning was good and he could start moves from the back.”
“He passed the ball well,” confirms Marquinhos. “Quickly, too. He would play these lovely diagonal balls with his left foot. He was very technical and didn’t feel the pressure when the opposition closed him down.”
If anything, the gangly youngster was still learning to make the best use of his frame. “His heading has come on massively since he left Avai,” Marquinhos adds. “He wasn’t the best in the air when he was young but that comes with age and hard work.”
There was a resilience in Gabriel that belied his tender years. “When he joined the group, we immediately saw that he was going to be able to cope with the responsibility,” says Marquinhos. “Mentally, he was very strong. Nothing got him down. Mistakes happen in football but you show your character by recovering from them, and he always did that. Everyone loved the kid: he’s a boy with a great heart and strong principles. He was never a problem, always a solution.”
Although the young Gabriel remained a squad player for Avai during their promotion campaign of 2016, his performances for the Brazil Under-20 team began to attract attention from scouts both domestically and in Europe. Flamengo, Palmeiras and several German clubs had expressed an interest but Lille’s pursuit was most aggressive. Andre Martins, now football co-ordinator at Brazil’s Chapecoense, had been tasked by the French team with identifying a left-sided centre-half. Having been impressed by Gabriel’s performances in the Avai youth sides, he proposed the signing to Lille’s sporting director, Luis Campos.
A buyout clause of €3 million made him an attractive acquisition. Avai kept 15 per cent of Gabriel’s economic rights and the sale helped offset financial problems for the Santa Catarina club. Gabriel was away with the Brazilian youth team in Ecuador when he received a phone call from his agent and Gerard Lopez, the Lille owner. A deal was quickly done, with medical tests undertaken at national team facilities. Gabriel moved to northern France right at the close of the January 2017 transfer window.
It was initially a culture shock. “I did not know that in Lille, it was zero degrees!” he told France Football earlier this year. “After Ecuador, I spent a little time in Brazil with my family, then I came directly to France. Ecuador: 35 degrees, Brazil: 40 degrees and here: zero!”
Game time was initially hard to come by, too — it would be more than two years before he started a Ligue 1 match for Lille. He was loaned to Troyes, but made just one senior appearance. A move to Dinamo Zagreb was similarly fruitless, although he did make an appearance for the youth team in a fixture against Arsenal that also featured the likes of Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson. Despite the lack of senior football, Gabriel settled in Zagreb. With a healthy contingent of Portuguese-speaking players and coaching staff, he even asked Lille to consider making the move permanent.
They declined. Despite a shaky first start against Guingamp in February 2019, his raw attributes were too promising, too obvious for them to simply let him go. And so Gabriel did precisely what he’d done in Brazil — got his head down and dedicated himself to honing his craft until his opportunity came.
“While he was chomping at the bit, he worked a lot,” says Lille manager Christophe Galtier. “It’s an example for others. You see so many players today who do not work when they are not in the group.” Thiago Mendes, a countryman who joined Lille six months after Gabriel, also saw his stoicism rewarded: “Galtier always knew about Gabriel’s quality but Gabriel had to be patient. He arrived at Lille very young and his time in Croatia did him a lot of good. He returned at the right time for him and for the team.”
The presence of players such as Mendes, Rony Lopes and Eder ensured he settled in the Hauts-de-France region, near the Belgian border and English Channel. Unlike some of his compatriots, Gabriel impressed staff and fans alike by learning remarkably fluent French. When club captain Adama Soumaoro succumbed to injury, Gabriel was ready. “I had a lot of patience to get an opportunity,” he told France Football. “And when it showed up, I took it with both hands — and both legs!”
Since then, the tall Brazilian has gathered momentum like a juggernaut. “I feel he is among the top five dominant central defenders in Europe right now,” Lille owner Lopez said earlier this season.
“His statistics, which aren’t well covered outside of France, shows that his percentage for winning duels is pretty unheard-of in a league that’s extremely physical. He’s an absolute machine.”
Gabriel doesn’t turn 23 until just before Christmas. Like any young defender, he is not perfect. Those long passes from the back can occasionally be wayward and his positional game is still improving. It’s his ability in one-to-ones, however, that makes him so promising. “He’s a very powerful player; very good in tackles on the ground,” says Olivier Fosseux of the Lille-based La Voix du Nord newspaper. “With his size, he is also very good in the air and is not afraid to compete in a duel. Despite his height, he is not easy to dribble past and takes the ball from the feet of the opponents. He is a very complete player.”
His focus and determination have been key to his improvement. “On the pitch, he is very serious, very focused,” explains Thiago Mendes, formerly of Lille and now at fellow Ligue 1 side Lyon. “Psychologically, Gabriel is very strong. He manages to combine calmness with concentration, which I think is quite a rare thing among footballers. He never gets flustered, even in risky moments.”
Gabriel was helped in his development by the assured presence of another Portuguese-speaker — former Crystal Palace, Southampton and West Ham United centre-back Jose Fonte. “Jose is like a second coach on the pitch,” Gabriel said earlier this year. “He has a lot of experience. He played in the World Cup… I listen to him a lot. He is someone very important to me. I also talk to him every day. In the locker room, we sit next to each other, we watch videos together.
“If one day I leave Lille, I’ll try and bring him with me!” he quipped.
That’s not going to happen but Gabriel will be able to learn from a player whose career he’ll be very familiar with: David Luiz. As Gabriel seeks to graduate from Brazil’s Olympic side to the senior squad, who better to mentor him than the man with 57 caps to his name?
Gabriel’s performances in 2019 put him on Arsenal’s radar in the build-up to the January transfer window. New head coach Mikel Arteta was clear in wanting a left-sided centre-half but Arsenal’s preference was for a loan deal. Ultimately, that led to the signing of Pablo Mari from Brazil’s Flamengo — albeit with an understanding the deal would be made permanent in the summer.
In the same month, Gabriel agreed a contract extension until 2023 but Lille knew even then that keeping him beyond this summer would be almost impossible — the deal was designed as much to preserve his transfer value as anything.
Gabriel, Willian, Lille, Chelsea, Champions League
Gabriel met fellow Arsenal summer signing Willian in last season’s Champions League (Photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP)
As the summer window approached, Arsenal again decided to add a central defender.
Dayot Upamecano of RB Leipzig was the scouting department’s top recommendation but Gabriel was a close second. At first, it looked like Everton would win the race for his signature — Gabriel and his representatives travelled to England for talks before the coronavirus pandemic put the brakes on the deal, providing other clubs with a chance to join the bidding.
As with their move to sign Pepe last summer, Arsenal ultimately found themselves duelling it out with Napoli for a Lille player’s signature. Prior to his departure, Raul Sanllehi led the negotiations — but conversations with Arteta and technical director Edu ultimately swung the deal in Arsenal’s favour.
He joins William Saliba in north London, meaning Arsenal now have two of French football’s brightest defensive prospects at their disposal. Last season, Arsenal’s defensive weakness led to Arteta employing three central defenders for extra insurance. Almost all Gabriel’s football has been played in a four-man backline and there is hope that he and Saliba could eventually offer the strong defensive platform required to dispense with the back three.
Two weeks in quarantine means he has had to delay joining up with first-team training and may miss the start of the Premier League season. That won’t be an unfamiliar feeling for Gabriel, who has shown a willingness to travel far and wait long for his moment. His success has been predicated on seizing the opportunities life throws his way. “Gabriel did not play at the start of last season because he was injured,” says local Lille journalist Fosseux. “But after that, he was one of the best Lille players; the most consistent.”
Back home, his friends at Avai will be watching on.“We’re all so proud with the story he is writing in Europe,” says Marquinhos. “Whenever we speak, I tell him that our dream is to see him play for Brazil. If he keeps improving as he has in the last few years, for a big European club, I’m sure it will happen. He’s got such a bright future.”
