Courted on the touchline, parents, scouts and coaches were left finds agape while the 14-year-old played with Blackburn Rovers while his body hung together through a wire.
Five minutes after the Floodlit Cup match 'Kid Messi' JJ Gabriel van Manchester United a tough collision and disrupted his shoulder.
Gabriel is ultra -competitive and this was tournament football. As the best player on the field, he did not leave without scoring.
“It was incredible,” said a spectator that night last September. “He put his shoulder back and then scored a hat trick and got an assist in a 4-0 win. It was really remarkable. '
It is a story that illustrates how special a Talent Gabriel is for Manchester United.
A little more than six months later, Gabriel created more history and scored twice in a 13-1 thrashing of Leeds after he became the youngest player ever to appear for United's Under-18s.
But as his reputation grows, there is also a warning.
There are two important windows in Academy Football where players can be poached by rivals – at 14 and 16. And therefore a cryptic Instagram story last month with a 'wave' emoji felt ominous to say the least.
Mail Sport understands that several of the Premier League rivals of United 'are' desperate 'to get Gabriel, while the fact that he has an Irish passport, so that he can play in the European Union from the age of 16 when he would otherwise have to wait until 18, opens the will of Barcelon, Bayern Munrid.
“United is a big club, a huge club, and it fits with JJ and JJ's profile fits on United's profile, he is something they don't have at all,” a rival Academy Scout recently mused.
'But United must be careful that they are not wrong with him. They know they are contrary to keep him. '
Gabriel, full name Joseph Junior Andreou Gabriel, grew up in London and had spells in Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham. He has tightened his technique in Futsal as much as in football.
At the age of six he spent a week focusing on his chair. Towards the end of that week he was able to do 1,000 in a row and quickly became the best player in games against players who are years older than he was.
“He was very raw, but he was very competitive,” Alfie Brooks, owner of Ole Futsal and Gabriel's specialist one-on-one coach, told Mail Sport. 'When he first started training, they were the striking attributes.
'In my time I coached almost 1,000 Academy players – four of them in Josh Nichols (Arsenal), Josh Achampong (Chelsea), Sydie Peck (Sheffield United) and Tyrique George (Chelsea) made their senior debut – and JJ is ever.
“He could go to a Premier League dressing room at the moment and technically he would be better than them all. It would not even be close. '
At the age of nine, Gabriel Viral went with a YouTube video in which he appeared under the name 'Kid Messi', a nickname that the young person wants to throw, and now at the age of 14 he made the step in the 18S as United Press the accelerator on his development.
It is Cristiano Ronaldo or Neymar who believe many talent spotters that he mirror one day, even more than Messi. When Cristiano Ronaldo JNR was part of the United Academy, he made a very close friendship with Gabriel.
Together presented in Old Trafford with the No. 7 (Ronaldo) and no. 10 (Gabriel) shirts, they came close and often brought time together through the field through the mansion of Ronaldo SNR with seven bedrooms.
The Portugal and the United Icon sparkled at the Young Gabriel and received a signed shirt as a farewell gift before he left Manchester for Saudi Arabia.
Dan Ashworth, who was extracted earlier this season by Sir Jim Ratcliffe as a sports director, was an admirer of Gabriel, while one teammate spoke about 'blown away' by the 14-year-old in their training sessions.
Academy manager Nick Cox is flooded with reports from coaches about Gabriel's rapid progress by the age groups and the hierarchy of United has carefully set up the movements to show that Old Trafford is the place for him.
United offered him boxes for competitions in the first team and last season as a 13-year-old he was invited to warm up with the Under 18S for their Premier League Cup final victory over Manchester City. In February's Fa Youth Cup quarterfinals victory in Arsenal, he traveled and was warmed up again with the side of Adam Lawrence.
The club also brought him on tour with their less than 16 to Hong Kong and tested him for 6,000 fans. Of course he won player of the tournament.
“He is by far the best player I've ever seen,” Brooks added. “He has the potential to be one of the best players that this country has ever produced.”
Gabriel's career so far has been managed by the letter by his family with superstar in mind. His father, former Republic of Ireland International Joe O'Cearuill, turned the surname of the family in Gabriel into a nod to their religious beliefs and made the United Starlet more flammable.
The decision was also made to Gabriel to the home school to maximize his prospects in football, while following a very strict diet to improve performance. In all respects, he is already operating as a top professional and made his England under the 15 debut in February.
When it comes to Gabriel, there is almost always a queue. A queue of clubs waiting to pick him up from United. A queue of brands who would like to work with him as his Instagram that follows sky rockets. A queue of sportswear giants who would like to land his signature.
A flurry of large brands of jockeying to land Gabriel in recent months before he put Pen with Nike on paper in February in February about what is understood as one of the most lucrative contracts distributed to a player of his age.
Representatives from Nike regularly watch Gabriel at competitions and he has been on the radar of several brands since he wrote his first deal with Nike as a player under 10.
“That started a trend,” said a source close to that first Nike Deal. “That was a really lucrative deal, but it is expected to be incredible.”
United wanted to see Gabriel go with Adidas, because the German giants are the kit supplier of United, and the bidding war is on. Nike had Gabriel as a guest of honor in their hospitality box in Anfield for the 2-2 draw of Liverpool with Manchester United, shared with his 85,000 Instagram followers, while Adidas organized him this season when Manchester United pulled with Chelsea.
In the end it was Nike who broadcast their rivals for a player who, according to them, will go to reach the status of the superstar.
“He will end as Ronaldo. Only goals, goals, goals, “as one source said.
Given his rise to this point, few would bet against him.
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