Gabriel Barbosa | Suspended for two years for attempted anti-doping fraud

[Robbie Boy]

Any Serie A followers on here know what the story with this guy is? He moved to Inter last summer for around €30m and has only played 5 games since with no goals. He's been linked with a return to Santos and to Liverpool in recent times as he's apparently unhappy.

There was plenty of hype and fanfare around him with him often popping up on lists of 'the next big things'. I mean he's only 20 but what's happened with him at Inter?

 

[VorZakone]

I'm really curious as well. Some rated him higher than Gabriel Jesus.

 

[AltiUn]

I'm really curious as well. Some rated him higher than Gabriel Jesus.

For good reason too, guy was excellent, no idea what's happened but needs regular playing time ASAP. Could be attitude problems or something of that ilk.

 

[Fracture90]

Not getting chances. Under De Boer he got a single game or so, under Pioli is the same. In fact he rarely even makes the bench.

Some are saying he moved to Europe too soon, some are saying he's suffering due to having participated in the Olympics.

 

[Manchester Dan]

Young age so will just take time to settle. Had Gabriel Jesus started his City career in a similar fashion he would have already been written off by many. These teenagers need some breathing space to settle in to new leagues, clubs and lifestyles.

 

[Robbie Boy]

Not getting chances. Under De Boer he got a single game or so, under Pioli is the same. In fact he rarely even makes the bench.

Some are saying he moved to Europe too soon, some are saying he's suffering due to having participated in the Olympics.

If he can't make the bench then that's worrying. Don't they have like 12 subs in Italy?

The guy is meant to be a brilliant talent and he's been capped by Brazil at senior level. It's not like he hasn't played much football in his career either; he had over 50 goals for Santos in 100 odd games. Just seems strange as I'm sure Inters squad isn't littered with great strikers. Obviously Icardi is the main man but surely Barbosa should be able to get more gametime.

I don't follow Serie A at all I just find it peculiar but maybe there's more to it.

 

[Fracture90]

If he can't make the bench then that's worrying. Don't they have like 12 subs in Italy?

The guy is meant to be a brilliant talent and he's been capped by Brazil at senior level. It's not like he hasn't played much football in his career either; he had over 50 goals for Santos in 100 odd games. Just seems strange as I'm sure Inters squad isn't littered with great strikers. Obviously Icardi is the main man but surely Barbosa should be able to get more gametime.

I don't follow Serie A at all I just find it peculiar but maybe there's more to it.

He is talented, no denying that but he has Kandreva, Perišić, Eder as competition and Inter can't afford to be slipping any more this season.

There's lot's of talks of him going on loan to some other Calcio club or to Spain.

He's playing on the RW at Inter. At least he was in those games he got to play.

 

[Robbie Boy]

He is talented, no denying that but he has Kandreva, Perišić, Eder as competition and Inter can't afford to be slipping any more this season.

There's lot's of talks of him going on loan to some other Calcio club or to Spain.

I would have thought he's a-lot better than those 3. Out of that list, Perisic is the only one that I rate. Eder is horrible and Candreva has never really lived up to early expectations though he was decent at Lazio.

I remember when he signed for Inter - based on the hype and his scoring exploits for Santos - I thought he would hit the ground running. I suppose time will tell with him and I mean he's still only 20!

 

[Scorpy]

Will probably leave Inter and realize his potential elsewhere just like Coutinho did.

 

[Fracture90]

I would have thought he's a-lot better than those 3. Out of that list, Perisic is the only one that I rate. Eder is horrible and Candreva has never really lived up to early expectations though he was decent at Lazio.

I remember when he signed for Inter - based on the hype and his scoring exploits for Santos - I thought he would hit the ground running. I suppose time will tell with him and I mean he's still only 20!

Nah, he's still very raw, his time will come.

Also Inter getting eliminated from Europe and national Cup isn't helping him get some game time.

 

[shamans]

Signed him on my FM save playing Sunderland. What a legend. Tearing up the league right now.

 

[Robbie Boy]

Signed him on my FM save playing Sunderland. What a legend. Tearing up the league right now.

He's an absolute beast in FM alright!

 

[Fenomeno9]

He simply went to the wrong club. Inter are notorious for handling youth poorly. Look how they mismanaged Coutinho.

 

[Bepi]

He is not ready yet, he can't do anything valuable atm. Next Coutinho I can't say

 

[Robbie Boy]

He simply went to the wrong club. Inter are notorious for handling youth poorly. Look how they mismanaged Coutinho.

Aye, I wouldn't be too familiar with their history of handling youth players but Coutinho is one that never got a chance. Have their been many more?

I suppose on the flip side, they gave youth such as Balotelli, Martins and Kovacic the chance in recent times.

 

[devilish]

Inter happened. Its a circus

 

[Hawks2008]

To be fair, it would be hard to break into the team when his competition is the joint-second top scorer.

 

[Robbie Boy]

To be fair, it would be hard to break into the team when his competition is the joint-second top scorer.

Hard to break in as a starter, yes. Icardi is obviously the main man but I mean 5 games since arriving is kind of mad. It's not as though their squad is littered with attacking talent.

 

[Fenomeno9]

Aye, I wouldn't be too familiar with their history of handling youth players but Coutinho is one that never got a chance. Have their been many more?

I suppose on the flip side, they gave youth such as Balotelli, Martins and Kovacic the chance in recent times.

They mismanaged Pirlo if I remember correctly. Bonucci is also a inter youth product but I'm not familiar with his story other than he was loaned out a few times than ultimately sold to Juventus.

 

[Castia]

Didn't Inter do similar with Coutinho? a young Brazilian with tons of talent for some reason didn't get a chance.

Edit: sorry Coutinho already mentioned.

 

[PedroMendez]

I'm really curious as well. Some rated him higher than Gabriel Jesus.

Not really. Even inter fancied jesus, but he decided to join City.

 

[giorno]

Meh. I've seen very little of him, with brazil at the copa america and olympics. Quite clearly a level or two behind gabriel jesus in terms of both talent and current ability

As for why he's not getting minutes at inter...nobody knows, it's a big mistery in Italy as well. Rumors he's physically unfit to play at this level. Like, seriously can't last more than 5-10 minutes of top european-paced football

 

[BennyBlanco]

Was this guy ever that good or just another Football Manager gamer hero?

 

[Robbie Boy]

Apparently off to Santos (loan) after a failed loan spell at Benfica. This kid had some amount of hype around him and seems to have completely failed to live up to that billing.

 

[FootballHQ]

I mentioned him in the Gabriel Jesus thread just yesterday. You'd have thought Benfica would've been a good loan move for him given Jonas scored millions of goals there but hardly playing there after being non-existant at Inter isn't great signs.

 

[Sly]

Pretty awful everytime i saw him. Terrible attitude as well. The new Keirrison.

 

[Who's Kissing Cameras?]

Given he had a flashy nickname already so young in his career, I thought Gabigol would be destined for big things. Doesn't look so good so far but he's still very young.

He should look at how Jesus has overtaken him and left him in the dust.

 

[Caius]

What an FM legend for me, signed him every year since probably 13 or 14.

 

[Fenomeno9]

This all goes back something I said a while back. Brazilian talents should all follow one of two paths before moving to Europe. Either leave Brazil after they are 21 or 22 when you game has matured a bit or opt for the smaller team in Europe route.

 

[giorno]

Physically and mentally unfit for top level football. That's all. He's closer to a street performer than a top professional footballer

 

[devilish]

I have been saying it time and time again, beware of the small leagues (Brazil, Portugal, Holland etc). Just because a player looks like Baresi or RVN in their local pool that doesn't mean he's a great talent or at least he's not the finishing product just yet. The Milanese clubs learnt that in the hard way with Barbosa, Joao Mario and Andre Silva. Sure these clubs have little patience with players, however, other, more patient clubs had their fingers burnt too (us with Depay, Bayern with Sanches etc). I wonder if its worth spending ridiculous amount of money on players that need so much time and work to settle down. Its one thing spending 5m-10m on a work in progress that might or might not make it. When a club spend 20m-40m on a player it expects him to settle down immediately.

 

[Javi]

I have been saying it time and time again, beware of the small leagues (Brazil, Portugal, Holland etc). Just because a player looks like Baresi or RVN in their local pool that doesn't mean he's a great talent or at least he's not the finishing product just yet. The Milanese clubs learnt that in the hard way with Barbosa, Joao Mario and Andre Silva. Sure these clubs have little patience with players, however, other, more patient clubs had their fingers burnt too (us with Depay, Bayern with Sanches etc). I wonder if its worth spending ridiculous amount of money on players that need so much time and work to settle down. Its one thing spending 5m-10m on a work in progress that might or might not make it. When a club spend 20m-40m on a player it expects him to settle down immediately.

If anything you can conclude that the league itself is no guarantee for a player being a great talent. But that's nothing new, is it? Opposed to Joao Mario, Silva and Barbosa are Jesus, Guedes (the Valencia one ), Casemiro.

 

[Mciahel Goodman]

I think he made the move at the wrong time to the wrong club. Inter was not a good choice at the time.

 

[worcesterred]

This all goes back something I said a while back. Brazilian talents should all follow one of two paths before moving to Europe. Either leave Brazil after they are 21 or 22 when you game has matured a bit or opt for the smaller team in Europe route.

Tim Vickery has always said this and it makes perfect sense. Even though it may still seem a relatively short-time between the ages of 17/18 and your early 20s it is absolutely huge. Most people mature between those years.

 

[devilish]

If anything you can conclude that the league itself is no guarantee for a player being a great talent. But that's nothing new, is it? Opposed to Joao Mario, Silva and Barbosa are Jesus, Guedes (the Valencia one ), Casemiro.

Not really. The Portuguese, Dutch and Brazilian football had always been inferior to the top dogs (Spain, Germany, English and Italian). However it was still worth investing in talent from there as the gap wasn't that large and these players were cheap to buy. Now we're in a situation were the gap between these two type of leagues keeps getting bigger and so are the fees being asked for these players. Slowly but surely its becoming not worth buying players from there anymore.

We're already witnessing that in the Serie A whose the poorest of all top leagues. After getting their fingers burnt with Silva, Mario and Barbosa, the big clubs are slowly moving away from buying talent from these leagues and instead opting more on buying local talent

 

[Javi]

Not really. The Portuguese, Dutch and Brazilian football had always been inferior to the top dogs (Spain, Germany, English and Italian). However it was still worth investing in talent from there as the gap wasn't that large and these players were cheap to buy. Now we're in a situation were the gap between these two type of leagues keeps getting bigger and so are the fees being asked for these players. Slowly but surely its becoming not worth buying players from there anymore.

We're already witnessing that in the Serie A whose the poorest of all top leagues. After getting their fingers burnt with Silva, Mario and Barbosa, the big clubs are slowly moving away from buying talent from these leagues and instead opting more on buying local talent

Yes these leagues are inferior (are they on the youth level too, I'm talking about U21, U18 etc.?) but at the same time this allows young players to get more game time at a younger age. Big clubs won't move away from these leagues, or where are you gathering the signs for that? Mario and Silva were bought this very summer. If anything prices will stagnate/drop or lower clubs will take the bet. Actually given the shitload of money involved I was observing more of a trend to buy earlier than before, for big but still manageable money out if Brazil for example (Lincoln, Vinicius, Arthur are all possible Madrid/Barça targets; Vinicius already bought for 45m this very summer).

 

[Trizy]

Can't take him serious.

Spoiler: Reason why..

 

[JPRouve]

This all goes back something I said a while back. Brazilian talents should all follow one of two paths before moving to Europe. Either leave Brazil after they are 21 or 22 when you game has matured a bit or opt for the smaller team in Europe route.

And this applies to pretty much every football country like Brazil, Argentina, France, Netherlands and Portugal. Too many players try to leave too soon and burn their wings.

 

[bebeanderson]

Not really. The Portuguese, Dutch and Brazilian football had always been inferior to the top dogs (Spain, Germany, English and Italian). However it was still worth investing in talent from there as the gap wasn't that large and these players were cheap to buy. Now we're in a situation were the gap between these two type of leagues keeps getting bigger and so are the fees being asked for these players. Slowly but surely its becoming not worth buying players from there anymore.

We're already witnessing that in the Serie A whose the poorest of all top leagues. After getting their fingers burnt with Silva, Mario and Barbosa, the big clubs are slowly moving away from buying talent from these leagues and instead opting more on buying local talent

Silva, Mario and Barbosa came from the same leagues that Ronaldo R9, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Cafu, Seedorf, Bergkamp came from. Yeah, you get the point..

These leagues will continue to export players, the fees are higher because all fees are getting higher. Besides, as teams get financially more stable they can ask for more realistic prices. Buying Kaka for 5m dollars won't happen anymore, but you couldn't count on those prices forever.

 

[devilish]

Yes these leagues are inferior (are they on the youth level too, I'm talking about U21, U18 etc.?) but at the same time this allows young players to get more game time at a younger age. Big clubs won't move away from these leagues, or where are you gathering the signs for that? Mario and Silva were bought this very summer. If anything prices will stagnate/drop or lower clubs will take the bet. Actually given the shitload of money involved I was observing more of a trend to buy earlier than before, for big but still manageable money out if Brazil for example (Lincoln, Vinicius, Arthur are all possible Madrid/Barça targets; Vinicius already bought for 45m this very summer).

As said before these leagues were always weaker than the top leagues however that didn’t deterred the big clubs from buying players from there simply because the gap in terms of quality wasn’t that great + some great bargains could be made. Now things have changed. The prices are at the roof + genuinely good talent are hard to come by. You might not notice but there’s no Van Bastens, Gullits and Rijkaards coming from the Dutch league, there’s no Ronaldos and Rui Costas coming from the Portuguese leagues and there’s certainly no Kakas and Ronaldinhos coming from the Brazilian leagues either.

Unless the Portuguese/Dutch/Brazilian clubs start being more realistic on their player’s fees then I think the demand for these players will go down. Its one thing spending 5m-10m on some kid who might or might not make it, however things are different when the fee asked goes up to 30m-40m. In the latter case, players are expected to settle down immediately.

Its already happened with clubs like Juventus who had been avoiding buying players directly from those leagues. I guess the Milanese clubs and Bayern will soon follow that trend especially after ending up with their fingers burnt.