A couple of weeks ago, Manchester City were linked to Brazilian youngster Gabriel Verón.
A piece from Italian outlet Corriere Dello Sport said the Premier League side were following the teenager, who was recently named the best player at the U17 World Cup.
Gabriel Verón belongs to Palmeiras, and his potential is now being compared to Gabriel Jesus, who used to play for the same club before moving to England in 2017.
So when speaking to the Brazilian media on Wednesday, the Manchester City star was asked about Gabriel Verón. Since the teenager said Jesus is a player he inspires himself in, Esporte Interativo wanted a few words from the 22-year-old.
“It seems a bit similar, our trajectory. To tell the truth I don’t know how long he’s been at Palmeiras’ academy. But I saw he played the U17 World Cup for the national team, won in Brazil, I cheered a lot. And I was able to play in 2015 the U17 with the national team. We didn’t win, we lost in the final, and soon after I returned to Palmeiras. I had already been promoted after the Copa São Paulo, I could play some games in the State Championship and was going to start playing the league. Obviously there is a bit like me, right, in this trajectory.”
“I hope he does very well. He has at Palmeiras the big support of the club, the fans mainly, because the fans sometimes gets a little lacking of players coming from the academy. We know the Palmeiras’ philosophy, sometimes the academy athletes don’t have many opportunities. So I will really hope that he plays, has chances and scores goals, plays well and helps the club to win titles. I really hope he and Dudu can score a lot of goals for Palmeiras.”
By scoring a hat-trick against Dinamo Zagreb last night, Gabriel Jesus has become the youngest Brazilian to reach ten Champions League goals.
The Manchester City player was obviously asked about that, and is very happy with how things are going for him right now.
“Of course they are records, numbers, of course I respect all those players. I always want to be scoring, my work on the pitch I know is scoring goals. I’m a striker, I have to score goals. Not only help without or with the ball, but I have to score goals. And tonight I put in my head that I had to score. And it happened from the four chances I had I made three. So I’m very happy for that.”
