Who is Gabriel Barbosa?
In a summer transfer window that is expected to be relatively busy for the Gunners it comes as no surprise that the club is once again linked with every player under the sun. However, one player that may not have crossed your footballing minds is a young Brazilian called Gabriel Barbosa!
I must admit apart from a few reports that have surfaced over the past couple of weeks, I haven’t heard too much about Barbosa. However, the young Brazilian has been dubbed ‘the next Neymar’, which is always promising to hear. Barbosa is an upcoming star in world football and currently plays his trade for Brazilian side Santos, where Neymar of course also started his career. Barbosa has a 50 goals in 150 appearances for Santos, which is a decent feat of course for a 19 year old and such has been his spectacular rise to form, Barbosa has since been picked to represent his national side Brazil, in this summer’s Copa America.
Now that Barbosa has found his feet in football and is starting to look like one of the biggest upcoming talents in the world, of course he is going to start attracting the attention of some of the biggest clubs in European football. Again much like Neymar, Barbosa however isn’t going to come cheap and so if Arsene Wenger really wants to get his man, not only is he going to have to cough up big money to Santos, but also to beat some of the biggest rivals for his signature. The Daily Mirror reports that in England alone, Arsenal face competition from both Chelsea and Manchester United, whilst I’m sure he will also be attracting the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid who have a knack for understandably attracting some of the brightest upcoming talents.
The biggest issue aside from cost for Arsenal is of course work permit issues. Arsenal have been desperately unlucky with securing work permits for young players being brought into the club from non-EU countries, even under the special talent measures that football permits have in place. Even though Barbosa has made his international debut for Brazil he still may not qualify for an automatic permit and so will be reliant on securing a special talent permit, if he was to move to England.
Personally I don’t see the transfer happening, due to a number of reasons including transfer fees, work permit issues and probably the biggest challenge of all, fending off competitive European interest from other clubs. However at the end of the day, you never know what to expect in football and this could be a transfer story that picks up some more credible developments in the coming weeks.
By AH