Gab’s all smiles after baptism of fire in Brazil
GABRIEL Jesus can afford to laugh about it now, but his football career very nearly took a very different direction.
The story of how the City star was swayed to join by a phone call from Pep Guardiola is well-known, and he has been a key member of the team since his arrival in January last year.
The 20-year-old has shown a maturity beyond his years to not only be able to compete with Sergio Aguero and the other attacking talent in the Blues squad but also outperform them, and has done it all with a cheeky grin.
That impish spirit very nearly got Jesus into serious trouble as he was growing up, however.
Without a club academy to join in Brazil, the forward explained to The Players’ Tribune how he took to playing men’s football in Sao Paulo aged 13, a league he describes as “kind of like street basketball in America, or like the semi-professional football leagues in Europe. The pitches are all dirt, and you’re playing against the marmanjo – the ‘hard men.’”
City’s striker recounts how he was playing against one of the best teams in the league when he caught their attention by skinning a defender to score the opening goal of the game.
Despite being marked out for some rough treatment by one player in particular, Jesus continued to torment him. “It was like the NBA. I broke his ankles. I made him fall right on his a**.”
After surviving the rest of the game, the youngster had to be shepherded into the car park by his team-mates to avoid having his legs broken by the opposition.
Jesus survived, joined Palmeiras when he was 15 and never looked back... until he returned home for Christmas and pulled into the car park of his local bank to find a familiar face – the very player he had embarrassed who clearly remembered every detail of the incident. “He says, ‘Remember me? The Várzea, bro! I was going to break your legs!’ “I’m like, Oh my God. I didn’t know what he was going to do. “And then he says, ‘Man, I was really going to break your legs. Can you believe that?’ “And I was trying to play it cool, like, ‘Come on, bro. No you weren’t. I know you were kidding.’ “And he says, ‘No, bro. No. I was really going to break your legs. And now you play for my favourite team, man! I love you, bro! I can’t believe it! Can you imagine if I had broken your legs?’ “We laughed, and picture with him.” Gabriel Jesus I took a