Gabriel, however, is not easily cowed. Hailing from the working-class district of Pirituba in Sao Paulo, he started at a football school called Tolentino in Osasco, on the outskirts of the town.

He used to play as a left-back but Ze Silva, his first coach, was not convinced and decided to train him as a centre-half instead. He was an instant hit, and caught the eyes of multiple teams.

Among them was Avai, now plying their trade in Brazil’s second tier. The only thing separating him from a trial was a 12-hour bus trip to Florianopolis – a daunting prospect for a 13-year-old to undertake on his own, and one which almost ended in disaster.

“We couldn’t travel with him, so he went alone.,” explains his father, Marcelo, who worked as a delivery driver. “But the main problem was that the bus apparently made a lot of stops along the way and he went down to the toilet in 

one of them, thinking that they had already arrived. He stayed there waiting for someone from the club to pick him up only to realise that it wasn’t the final destination.

“When he saw the bus leaving without him, he had to run after it, shouting at the driver to stop. We still laugh about it.”

Eventually, Gabriel made it to Florianopolis, but that was only the start of his struggles. He was desperately homesick, and would repeatedly call his family to complain about the cold and not getting much playing time. After just one week, he packed his things and headed back to Sao Paulo.

It threatened to curtail his promising career, and might well have done had it not been for his father. Despite the incessant phone calls from Avai, urging his son to return to their academy, Marcelo decided not to try and change his mind. Instead, he gave him a speech that became a turning point in Gabriel’s life.

“I had a small truck back then and couldn’t stop working, so, when he came back home, I told him, ‘I can’t do this anymore. A footballer’s life is like this – if you want it, you will have to deal with the distance from us and suffer a bit. You need to have a goal and pursue it.’”

The boy listened and, the following week, he returned to Avai – this time, for good.