Following Brazil’s home defeat to Argentina on Tuesday evening, we saw Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus claiming that scoring goals is not his strongest feature.
The player may have been quite naive to say something like this, as some fans and media in Brazil were outraged at seeing the national team’s centre-forward saying something like that.
UOL columnist Walter Casagrande is one of those who now rage against Gabriel Jesus. He features a piece with the ‘excuses’ given by Brazil after such poor results, and dedicates a few lines to the Arsenal player.
“Another absurdity was the interview with Gabriel Jesus, who, in my opinion, should no longer be called up, not just because of the poor football he’s playing with the national team, but because of two things he said after the game. The first was that he said that his strength is not scoring goals. But he’s the No9 in the Brazilian national team and he’s called up precisely to score goals.
“How can you say something like that? Yesterday, Gabriel Jesus made just one play in the whole game, and even then he kept tripping over the ball. Once again, Gabriel Jesus didn’t finish a ball on goal.
“The second statement by the Arsenal player that I found absurd was him saying, in a proud way, that it was the first time we’d beaten up the Argentinians, because we always get beaten.
It’s a shameful statement, especially since before the match there was that horrendous beating in the stands with the strong collaboration of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police. Even so, he boasts that they beat the Argentinian team. Gabriel Jesus, we got beaten on the ball and they won the game and celebrated in the middle of the Maracanã.”
There’s quite another big reason why Brazilians don’t believe Gabriel Jesus will succeed with the national team.
As stated by journalist Rodolfo Rodrigues on Twitter, the player hasn’t scored for Brazil since July 2019. Since then, he had 24 appearances, 15 as a starter, and didn’t score a single goal. That includes two World Cup qualifiers, two World Cups and one Copa America.
The good news for Arsenal is that the striker is finally fit after recovering from his injury, and should be available for the match against Brentford at the weekend.
