Newsflash: It’s okay to not know a great deal about a young footballer. No one will think less of you.
Manchester City have announced the signing of Gabriel Jesus, a 19-year-old Brazilian who is currently away with his country as part of a strong Olympic Games squad.
City confirmed the signing today, though Gabriel will stay with current club Palmeiras until December before linking up with his new team-mates in January.
Here we go! 🇧🇷 Let’s all #WelcomeGabriel to City! ➡️ https://t.co/mJ3gXVLVoS #mcfc pic.twitter.com/hFsMzi8jig
— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 3, 2016
Aside from all the ‘second coming of Jesus’ comments which always follow deals like this (and, to be fair, Jesus Navas already being at the club means it *sort of* works), fans on Twitter were desperate to show how ITK they are with comparisons, good and bad.
Some are more serious than others, but it seems Gabriel is an amalgamation of more than a dozen other players.
His Olympic team-mate is the obvious place to start…
BETTER THAN NEYMAR
— DSK (@0161Darren) August 3, 2016
As well as one of Brazil’s all-time greats.
https://twitter.com/Arsany_/status/760858494794813440
But if you want to know how he compares to City players of yesteryear, you’re in luck.
https://twitter.com/RioFerdinandos/status/760854099529269248
Especially his compatriots…
https://twitter.com/KCeltics830/status/760857807830867972
And not just the best ones.
https://twitter.com/FellainiFever/status/760855903918850048
Some of the league’s other South Americans could provide a handy benchmark…
just a poor mans enner Valencia
— webster (@wxbstxrr) August 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/ClassyGriezmann/status/760856781404995584
Just a shit Kenedy
— Shadow Moises Caicedo (@ThyKingdomScum) August 3, 2016
In fact, why stop at South Americans?
https://twitter.com/ManLikeMata/status/760860364624003072
https://twitter.com/dyballocks/status/760856272719736832
The Brazilian Yannick Bolasie
— Marwan (@MarwanM__) August 3, 2016
You know what, why even stop at the Premier League?
https://twitter.com/Draynsito/status/760862506021707777
As for this guy, do you want to tell him or should we?
https://twitter.com/Mourinhodd/status/759119697266827264