Sweat breaking out on his forehead, Gabriel Martinelli struggled for words. He would look straight into the presenter’s eyes, then turn back and let his eyes wander, his parents in the stands next to him looking at him, waving at him. And then the words started to flow. “I don’t have words to describe the joy in my heart. Seeing all the Brazilian fans, my mom, my dad in the stands… I think the future will only be less money,” he said.
A question later, he approached the tunnel and hugged his father. He was living his father’s dream. Joao Martinelli was a midfielder himself, playing for a local club in Guarulhos, near São Paulo airport. But his parents couldn’t afford to put him in an academy, and when he told them he wanted to play football, they sent him to work in the family’s ice lolly shop instead. His dream was dashed there, though he continued to play football for his club in whatever spare time he had. So he made a different promise to himself: he would make his son a footballer.
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“My father always dreamed of being a footballer son. I was born when he was already 40 and his desire was stronger than ever,” Martinelli told Arsenal’s website.
His father bought him all kinds of balls to get him used to the game and hung a large poster of the original Ronaldo in his bedroom. He took him to an exhibition game where Ronaldo turned up. “My dad always told me he was the greatest player of all time. But when I saw him play, I wasn’t so sure! Just kidding, he was way past his predecessor,” he says.
While other parents were looking for schools to send their children to, he was busy choosing the football academy he would join. “I think the first sentence in my life I understood was the one he always said: ‘When you’re six, I’m going to take you to the test.’ As a six-year-old I had no idea what a test was,” he said.
He took him to a nearby field and told him he was preparing him for a test, showing him how to catch the ball, how to defend it, even kicking it hard with his left foot. He was serious about it, but Gabriel soon realized that football was the most fun thing in life, he recalled in a first-person account on Arsenal’s website.
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Three years later, he understood what his father meant by the test. He appeared for trials with Brazilian giants Corinthians, passed and spent four years of his youth career there. He then moved to Ituano, who last won the league in 1947. It was close to home, and his father thought playing time for a smaller club would suit him better than warming the bench at heavyweight. He also used to play in different positions. Besides, his father thought, he would learn it all.
Years later, that Ituano experience came in handy. At Arsenal, Mikel Arteta has deployed him on the frontline and attacking midfield: winger, inverted winger, false nine, number 10. The role Ancelotti substituted for him in the 65th minute against Japan was again different: the focal point of the attack, burdening the defenders freed up for more play by Juni, Anodrea and Anodrine. He is not the prototypical Brazilian winger made for reel. It is a system-centric safety valve.
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But he was undaunted. “At Arsenal, I don’t play in that position, but I can do it. The coach has spoken to me about it. I’m happy to help the team, whether it’s on the left or more in midfield,” he said.
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Then the opportunity came and he scored the goal of a lifetime. While Ronaldo is exemplary, he can also break down with his striking, as evidenced by his modest tally of 41 goals in 191 games for Arsenal. Arteta said: “He scored very important goals. I like Gabriel: his attitude, his commitment, his positivity, what he is willing to do for the team.” Like the goal against stubborn Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League.
Arsenal staff swear by his ethics, save an indulgence. Maybe. “Sometimes we eat something that is not healthy. I eat ice cream. I love it, I can eat it all day. My favorite flavors are vanilla and chocolate,” he told Goal.com. Ancelotti himself must have sent a box of ice cream to his room on Monday to celebrate the night he and his father had always dreamed of.