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. 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 at 4 pm. And so a cryptic Instagram story on Monday morning with a 'Golf' 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 where he would otherwise have to wait until 18, opens the will of Barcelon, Bayern Munrid.
'United is a large club, a huge club, and it fits with the profile of JJ and JJ fits on the profile of United, 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 with 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 matches with players who were his senior for years.
“He was very raw from a young age, 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 all. It would not even be close. '
This season, all in age groups higher than his, he has 15 goals and six assists in 13 games. Not bad for a winger.
At the age of nine Gabriel, Viral went after a YouTube video in which he appeared under the name 'Kid Messi', a nickname that the young person for one of his own will, and now he is called in the Under 18S at the age of 14 as United Press The Accelerator on his development.
It is actually Cristiano Ronaldo or Neymar who believe a lot of talent -identification data that his game can mirror, even more than Messi. When Cristiano Ronaldo JNR was part of the United Academy, he made a very close friendship with Gabriel.
Presented together in Old Trafford with the No 7 (Ronaldo) and No 10 (Gabriel) shirt, they came close and often spent time together through the field at Ronaldo SNR's mansion with seven bedrooms.
The Portugal and United Icon took a shining for the young Gabriel and received a signed shirt as a separation gift before he left Manchester for Weiden New in Saudi Aarabia.
Dan Ashworth, who was extracted earlier this season by Sir Jim Ratcliffe as a sports director, was a well-known 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 is carefully set up to show him Old Trafford and Manchester is the place for him.
United offered boxes for first team matches 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 the FA Youth Cup Quarte final victory of last week 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 had him tested for 6,000 fans. Of course he won the 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, made the decision to change the surname of the family in Gabriel, because it is seen as a nod to the religious beliefs of the family and offering the United Starlet a more noticeable name.
The decision was also made to the home school Gabriel to maximize his 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 15s debut last month.
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 big brands of jockeying to land Gabriel in recent months before he put Nike on paper with Nike last month about what is understood as one of the most lucrative contracts that his age to a player's age.
Representatives of Nike regularly watch Gabriel at competitions and he has been on the radar for several brands since he wrote his first deal with Nike as a player under 10 years old.
“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 Gabriel to see Adidas go, because the German giant is the kit supplier of United, and the bidding war has begun. 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 earlier this season when Manchester United pulled 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 will bet against him.
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