Gabriel Martinelli Brazil Vs Japan Winner World Cup Father Dream

Sweat dripping on his brow, Gabriel Martinelli struggled for words. He would look straight into the presenter’s eyes, then turn away and let his eyes wander, before finding his parents in the stands beside him, waving at him. And then the words flowed. “I don’t have words to describe the happiness in my heart. Seeing all the Brazilian fans, my mum, my dad in the stands… I think the penny will only drop in the days ahead,” he said.

A question later, he went and embraced his father near the tunnel. He was living his father’s dream as much as his own. Joao Martinelli had been a midfielder himself, playing for a local club in Guarulhos, close to the Sao 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 at the family’s ice lolly shop instead. His dream lay shattered there, even though he kept playing football in whatever free time he had for his club. So he made himself a different promise: he would make his son a footballer.

“My father always dreamed of having a footballer son. I was born when he was already 40, and this desire of his was still stronger than ever,” Martinelli told Arsenal’s website.

His father would buy him all sorts of balls, to get him accustomed to the sport, and hung a massive poster of Ronaldo, the original, in his bedroom. He even took him to an exhibition game where Ronaldo turned up. “My dad always used to tell me that he was the greatest player ever. But when I saw him playing, I wasn’t too sure about that! Just kidding, he was way past his prime then,” he says.

When other parents were searching for schools to put their children in, he was busy shortlisting the football academy he would join. “I think the first sentence I understood in my life was the one he always repeated: ‘When you turn six, I’m going to take you to a test.’ I had no idea what a test was, much less when I was six,” he said.

He took him to a ground in the neighbourhood and told him he was preparing him for the test, showing him how to catch the ball, how to protect it, insisting he kick hard with his left leg too. He was serious about it, but soon Gabriel understood that football was the most fun thing to do in life, he recollected in a first person account for Arsenal’s website.

Years later, that Ituano experience proved useful. At Arsenal, Mikel Arteta has deployed him across the frontline and attacking midfield: winger, inverted winger, false nine, No 10. The role Ancelotti gave him as a substitute in the 65th minute against Japan was still different again: the focal point of the attack, bearing down on defenders to open space for the more dynamic trio of Vinicius Junior, Endrick and Rayan. He is not a prototypical Brazilian winger built for reels. He is a system-centric safety valve.

But he was unfazed. “At Arsenal, I don’t play in that position, but I can do it. The coach has talked to me about it. I’m happy to help the team, whether that’s on the left or more in midfield,” he said.

Then the chance came, and he scored the goal of his lifetime. Though an idol of Ronaldo’s, he can be scattergun with his shots, his modest tally of 41 goals from 191 Arsenal appearances attesting to that. Arteta has said: “He scores very important goals. I adore Gabriel: his attitude, his commitment, his positivity, what he’s willing to do for the team.” Like the goal against a stubborn Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League.

Arsenal’s staff swear by his ethics, save one indulgence. Perhaps. “Sometimes we eat something that’s not healthy. I eat ice cream. I love it, I could eat it all day. My favourite flavours are vanilla and chocolate,” he told Goal.com. Ancelotti himself might have sent a box of ice creams up to his room on Monday, to celebrate the night he and his father had always dreamt of.