Barcelona set sights on Santos youngster "Gabigol"... but who is he?
Gabriel Barbosa Almeida, or simply Gabigol, is one of the most pleasant surprises from the Brazilian season.
The Santos striker, who turned 18 on August 30, has a glorious future and has been linked with a move to Barcelona.
One of the ramifications of the Neymar transfer was to give Barcelona a first option on three young Santos stars. Victor Andrade, who is now with Benfica, Giva, who has a foot and a half out of the team, but Gabigol is having a dramatic progression which has been noted by the Blaugrana technical staff.
His debut was on May 26 last year, at 16, and was the same day that Neymar played his last game with Santos. Since then Gabigol has played 50 times and notched 18 goals. First with the 7 shirt, which he returned to Robinho, and now with the legendary 10 of Pele. He is the top scorer in the 2014 Brasileirao with 5 goals this season.
A key figure in the evolution of Gabigol is undoubtedly Oswaldo de Oliveira, a coach who, as he showed at Botafogo, works well with young talents.
The coach has such confidence in the striker that he can use him in any position in attack. Where he is best is the false 9 role, where he can move to both sides.
The club play Leandro Damiao, as they try to get him to repay the €14m they paid for him. It means that Gabigol sometimes has to be used as a second striker.
At 1.76m and 68kg he does not have much in size, but his prfile fits perfectly the style that this Barcelona team play.
Barcelona observed him last month at the Tournament of L'Alcudia, where he played with the Brazil U20s.
The short term future of Gabigol is undoubtedly at Santos. His current contract expires in Spetember 2015, but is negotiatiing his renewal.
His agent, Wagner Ribeiro explained to SPORT that like Neymar, his deal with Santos is "well designed".
"Our intention is to sign a contract for 3 or 4 years as Gabigol is very young. The career plan we see for him means he stays with Santos until at least the Rio 2016 Olympic games, then we will decide, but he will end up in a team that plays in the Champions League."
His current buyout clause is €50million, an amount that could increase, and his family hold 40% of his economic rights. His monthly salary is is €20,000, which puts him towards the top of the Santos changing room.
What Ribeiro and Santos president Rodrigues Odilio are now trying to do is see how he can best exploit his image rights and can attract new sponsors.
Gabigol is another product from the Meninos da Vila factory, which has seen the likes of Neymar, Robinho, Diego, Paulo Henrique Ganso, Elano, Alex (centre-back), Wesley and Danilo come out of it.
