“Madrid CFF totally saved me” after Arsenal “messed with me a lot” says Arsenal Women loanee Gio

Arsenal Women’s Gio Queiroz, who is currently on loan to Madrid CFF, has spoken openly about her tumultuous football career to date. Still only 20 years old, Gio has played for five different teams and has been part of the youth teams of three national teams: Spain, Brazil and the United States. She has experienced continuous change in the last four seasons that has not allowed her to settle, and get regular minutes.

“One year here, another there… I said: ‘I want to stay in one place'” Gio told Relevo in a recent interview. “Right now I’m starting to feel like Gio again, playing, little by little. There’s a lot left. Scoring, being happy… Keep going like this. In the end I hadn’t enjoyed it for a year or so”

During the season Gio had contact with Víctor Martín, current coach of the Madrid CFF team, who also joined the team in January: “He wrote to me during the season sometimes and that’s cool because we have confidence. January came and he called me. Talking to my parents we knew “It was a good opportunity. I felt like I came home. Madrid CFF totally saved me . “

Gio moved to Madrid CFF in January 2024, on loan from Arsenal, and on the last day of the league she scored a hat-trick against Villarreal, saying “We came from Eibar, where I missed two very clear ones. I am very demanding “Going to the Villarreal game I wanted to help. When I scored the goal I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. In the second and third I thought ‘how good I feel’.”

After failing to break into Jonas Eidevall’s team—Gio wasn’t even registered in the Arsenal Women 25-strong WSL squad this season. She remembers the last few months at Arsenal as complicated: “They told me one thing, then another happened. They messed with me a lot. In preseason I was going to leave and they wanted me to leave. I wanted to play and I wanted to have minutes”

Gio had to stay at Arsenal after the windows of some leagues she wanted to go to were closed: “They told me they were not going to register me. I was not very well. January appeared and it was an opportunity.” she added. At this point she moved out on loan to Madrid CFF, a club she first played professionally for at the age of 15.

This 20 year old Brazilian is truly finding her feet, her confidence and her form; ideally, she will continue to soar so that she can compete for a spot on the Arsenal Women team next season. That is, if she even wants to return, of course..

What do you think about Arsenal’s ‘treatment’ of Gio? Could this young player have been managed better?

Michelle M

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