Gabriel Jesus, who left Manchester City for Arsenal this summer, has this week spoken on Brazilian podcast Podpah, and spent nearly two hours talking about his career.
It turns out one of the most curious quotes in the chat was about his move to England, which happened in January 2017, when the player was just 19-years-of-age.
Gabriel Jesus claimed that despite knowing how big the move to Manchester City was, as Pep Guardiola’s side paid Palmeiras €32m for his signing, he struggled to adapt to his new city, with the weather playing a big part in it.
“In the first month, in my head, I thought about leaving. I left Brazil with a lot of heat and on holiday. I was supposed to arrive on January 4th, I arrived on the 2nd. I left Brazil with 35°C, I arrived there with -5°C, snowing, horrible,” Gabriel Jesus told Podpah (via UOL).
“There, at 3pm, it was already getting dark. I was living in a hotel. I went with my family, and for them it was bad too. I spent a month eating pizza and training in the morning. I was training alone for two weeks because of the documentation. I’d leave training, go to the hotel and eat pizza. That was 1pm. Then I played video games or went to the mall with my friends. Returned to the hotel at 3pm, slept and woke up at 7pm. There I slept at 10pm and would wake up at midnight.
“In my head, it was: ‘I want to leave’. It was the dream of being in a good club, with good players, with the Premier League, the Champions League… that motivated me”.
The adaptation, however, ended up working just fine, as Gabriel Jesus turned to be one of the Brazilians with most success in the Premier League, scoring 95 goals and contributing 46 assists in 233 appearances for Manchester City.
The striker seems to no longer be concerned about the English weather, as he agreed to a €52.2m move to Arsenal this summer, although he can certainly find more sunny days in London during his new five-year contract with the Gunners.
