Gabriel Barbosa

Gabriel Barbosa Almeida (born 30 August 1996), commonly known as Gabigol or Gabi, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward.

A graduate of the Santos academy, Gabriel made his professional debut at the age of 16 and made over 200 appearances for the club across all competitions. Playing for Flamengo since 2019, he quickly became a fan favourite after scoring twice in the final minutes of the 2019 Copa Libertadores Final and again in the 2022 Copa Libertadores Final.He is currently suspended of playing because of an Anti Doping judgment.

Early career
Born in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Gabriel joined Santos's youth setup in 2004, at the age of 8; his prolific goalscoring with the club's youth sides saw him earn the nickname Gabigol. On 25 September 2012, he signed a professional contract, with a €50 million buyout clause, and made his first team debut on 17 January of the following year, in a friendly match against Grêmio Barueri.

Santos
On 26 May 2013, Gabriel made his league debut, at only 16 years old, in a 0–0 draw against Flamengo. He scored his first professional goal on 22 August, netting the game's only goal in a home success against Grêmio, for the year's Copa do Brasil.

On 1 February 2014, Gabriel scored a brace and Santos' 12,000th goal in a 5–1 victory against Botafogo-SP, for that year's Campeonato Paulista championship. He finished the tournament with seven goals, as Peixe finished second.

Gabriel netted his first Série A goal on 20 April 2014, scoring his side's only in a 1–1 home draw against Sport Recife. He signed a new five-year deal with the club on 23 September, and finished the season with 21 goals, ten ahead of high-spending Leandro Damião.

After starting the 2015 campaign on the bench, Gabriel was appointed as first-choice after the departure of Robinho. He scored ten goals in the year's Brasileirão, and was the top scorer in Copa do Brasil with eight goals, with highlights including braces against Sport Recife, Joinville and Atlético Mineiro, and the winner in the first leg of the national cup's final against Palmeiras. His impressive form for the season with Santos also saw him named by Spanish sport magazine Don Balón as one of 101 best young talents in world football in 2015

Gabriel started the 2016 season with two consecutive goals, against São Bernardo and Ponte Preta. On 24 April he scored a double in a 2–2 home draw against Palmeiras (3–2 win on penalties), as his side reached the finals of the Paulistão for the eight consecutive time.

Inter
On 27 August 2016, after being warmly welcomed by Inter Milan fans when he landed in Milan the day before, Gabriel signed for Inter Milan on a five-year contract in a deal reportedly worth €29.5m.

On 22 September 2016, the club officially introduced Gabigol as an Inter player in the auditorium Pirelli with a media show: the striker entered the press room after a video showing him below the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro and then on Milan rooftops, clearly evoking the spot Inter had realized to introduce Il Fenomeno Ronaldo in the past.

Gabigol made his first appearance on 25 September 2016, subbing Candreva in the 73rd minute. He scored his first goal for Inter on 19 February after coming on as a substitute in a 1–0 away victory against Bologna.

Benfica (loan)
On 31 August 2017, Gabriel joined Portuguese club Benfica on a season-long loan deal. He made his debut on 12 September in a UEFA Champions League match against CSKA Moscow, replacing Álex Grimaldo in the 77th minute.

Gabriel made his Primeira Liga debut in a 2–1 loss at Boavista on 16 September 2017; he replaced Andrija Zivkovic, again in the 77th minute. He left the club in January with just 165 minutes of playtime and one goal scored, against Olhanense for the Taça de Portugal.

Return to Santos (loan)
On 25 January 2018, Gabriel's former club Santos announced that they had reached an agreement with Inter for his return to the club on a one-year loan deal. He made his re-debut for the club on 11 February, starting and scoring his team's second in a 2–2 away draw against Ferroviária.

Gabriel made his Copa Libertadores debut on 1 March 2018, starting in a 2–0 away loss against Real Garcilaso. On 11 May, he scored a hat-trick – the first of his professional career – in a 5–1 home routing of Luverdense, for the year's national cup.

On 1 September 2018, Gabriel scored all his team's goals in a 3–0 away win against Vasco da Gama.

Flamengo (loan)
On 11 January 2019, Flamengo officially announced an agreement with Inter Milan to sign Gabriel on loan until 31 December 2019.

Gabriel debuted for Flamengo on 23 January 2019 in a Campeonato Carioca 1–1 draw against Resende, he started the match and played all 90 minutes. He scored his first goal for Flamengo on 24 February 2019 in a 4–1 win against Americano, this was the first match of a six-game streak scoring including goals in Copa Libertadores matches against San José and LDU Quito and a brace against Portuguesa (RJ) and Madureira in the Campeonato Carioca. Flamengo won the 2019 Campeonato Carioca with Gabriel scoring 7 goals in 12 matches, also being selected to the tournament team of the year.

On 23 November 2019, Gabriel scored two late goals in the 2019 Copa Libertadores Final, in a 2–1 win over River Plate, when he was also sent off in the game, and became the top scorer of the competition with nine goals. Less than 24 hours later, Flamengo became champions of the Campeonato Brasileiro, with Gabriel having scored 25 league goals in the championship and becoming the first player since Túlio Maravilha in 1995 to be the nation's top goalscorer in two consecutive years; he also became the top goalscorer of the Brasileirão in the double round-robin-era, established in 2003.

Flamengo's supporters quickly adopted Gabriel as one of their favourite players and chanted the slogan Hoje tem gol do Gabigol (today Gabigol will score) frequently in the stadiums. He was awarded with the Bola de Ouro award for his efforts in Brazil and was crowned South American Footballer of the Year by Uruguayan newspaper El País.

Flamengo
On 27 January 2020, Flamengo announced that the club agreed on a permanent transfer and Gabriel signed a contract with the club until December 2024 with a deal reportedly worth €17.5m.

On 4 September 2022, Gabriel became the youngest player to reach 100 goals in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. On this date, Flamengo and Ceará drew 1–1, at Maracanã, in the 25th round of the Campeonato Brasileiro.

On 1 July 2023, Flamengo won a Campeonato Brasileiro Série A match against Fortaleza at home 2–0, with Gabriel scoring the first goal of the evening and reaching the mark of 150 total goals for Flamengo, becoming the ninth player in club's history to achieve this number.

On 24 March 2024, the Brazilian Doping Control Authority voted to suspend Gabriel for two years for attempted anti-doping fraud, after he was accused of making it difficult to carry out an anti-doping test before a Flamengo game in the Rio De Janeiro state league. The anti-doping body added that the ban would count from the date of the violation which occurred on 8 April 2023. Gabriel issued a statement denying the allegations stating he has "never tried to obstruct or defraud any test" and that he plans to appeal the decision with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Flamego said in a separate statement that they were surprised by the verdict and would support the player with his appeal "because there was no type of fraud".

Youth
In November 2011, Gabriel was called up to Brazil under-15s. On 20 June 2013, he appeared with the under-17s in a tournament in Miami.

On 22 July 2014, Gabriel was called up to the under-20s for the year's L'Alcúdia International Football Tournament. He was the competition's top scorer, but missed the final 2–0 win over Levante due to a dismissal in the previous game against Argentina.

Gabriel was also included in Alexandre Gallo's 23-man squad for the 2015 South American U-20 Championship held in Uruguay. He scored his first goal in the competition on 20 January 2015, netting the last in a 2–0 win against Venezuela.

In 2015, Gabriel was also called up for friendlies with the under-23 side, scoring six goals in only four matches. He was also part of the host team that won a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics under manager Rogério Micale.

Gabriel scored a brace for Brazil in their final group game against Denmark in an eventual 4–0 win.

Senior
On 26 March 2016, Gabriel received his first call up to the full squad, replacing suspended Neymar for a 2018 World Cup Qualifier against Paraguay. However, he was only an unused substitute in the 2–2 draw at the Estadio Defensores del Chaco in Asunción.

On 5 May 2016, Gabriel was called up by manager Dunga to participate in the Copa América Centenario to be held in the United States, describing the call-up as a "dream". He made his full international debut on 29 May, replacing goalscorer Jonas and scoring the last in a 2–0 friendly win over Panama.

On 20 September 2019, Gabriel was called up by manager Tite for a pair of friendlies against Senegal and Nigeria played in Singapore. Gabriel was the top goalscorer of the Campeonato Brasileiro with first-place Flamengo at the time. He came on in substitute for Roberto Firmino against Nigeria.

On 6 March 2020, Gabriel was again called by Tite for the first two matches of 2022 World Cup Qualifiers against Bolivia and Peru. He was called up along with the other members of Flamengo's attacking trio, Bruno Henrique and Éverton Ribeiro.

In June 2021, he was included in Brazil's squad for the 2021 Copa América on home soil. On 13 June, in Brazil's opening group match of the tournament, he scored the final goal in a 3–0 win over Venezuela. On 10 July, he made a substitute appearance in his nation's 1–0 defeat to rivals Argentina in the final.

Playing style
Considered to be a talented prospect, Gabriel is known for his technical skills, creativity and use of tricks on the ball; due to his flair and flamboyant playing style, he was dubbed the "next Neymar" by the media in 2016.

During his time with Santos and Flamengo, Gabriel's role on the pitch has evolved; originally a supporting forward capable of playing with his back to goal or on the wing, he transformed into a full-on striker with the main task of finding space inside the opponent's penalty box and poaching goals. Besides his goalscoring and positioning in attack, his physique also improved, leading him to start winning more aerial duels.

Due to recent changes in his style of play, he has been compared to Mauro Icardi, his former teammate at Internazionale.

A controversial figure, he struggled to make the grade in Europe. South American football expert Tim Vickery was damning with his verdict: “He’s 25 already, he had one go already in Europe with Inter Milan and Benfica, and it was an absolute disaster. People spoke very badly of him, if he was chocolate he would eat himself, he swanned around like he was Pretty Boy Floyd."

International

 * Scores and results list Brazil's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Gabriel goal.

Honours
Santos
 * Campeonato Paulista: 2015, 2016

Flamengo
 * Copa Libertadores: 2019, 2022
 * Recopa Sudamericana: 2020
 * Campeonato Brasileiro Série A: 2019, 2020
 * Copa do Brasil: 2022
 * Supercopa do Brasil: 2020, 2021
 * Campeonato Carioca: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024

Brazil U23
 * Olympic Gold Medal: 2016

Brazil
 * Copa América runner-up: 2021

Individual
 * Bola de Prata Best Newcomer: 2015
 * Campeonato Paulista Team of the Year: 2016, 2018
 * Campeonato Carioca Top scorer: 2020, 2022
 * Campeonato Carioca Team of the Year: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
 * Copa do Brasil Top scorer: 2014, 2015, 2018
 * Bola de Prata: 2018, 2019
 * Best Forward in Brazil: 2018, 2019
 * Campeonato Brasileiro Série A Team of the Year: 2018, 2019, 2020
 * Campeonato Brasileiro Série A Top scorer: 2018, 2019
 * Bola de Ouro: 2019
 * Copa Libertadores Team of the Tournament: 2019, 2021, 2022
 * Copa Libertadores Top scorer: 2019, 2021
 * Copa Libertadores Best Player: 2021
 * South American Team of the Year: 2019, 2021, 2022
 * South American Footballer of the Year: 2019