JJ Gabriel has given Manchester United a glimpse of what he has been up to since telling the club he wants to leave. The teenage prodigy sensationally requested to have his registration with the Reds cancelled last month.
It came just as first team head coach Michael Carrick was set to include him in the squad to face Brighton in September, where Gabriel could have become United's youngest ever player to feature in an official fixture.
Training in Barcelona
The youngster, who turned 16 on Tuesday, has not trained at Carrington since then. Instead, he has spent the past month doing individual work with a private coach in Castelldefels, Barcelona.
Amid reports linking Gabriel with the Catalan club, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, J-Stars coaching shared a clip of the wonderkid on Instagram on Friday morning. The account, which has 40,000 followers on the platform, posted a story where Gabriel can be seen scoring two David Beckham-like free-kicks with his right foot. Gabriel then re-posted it to his own Instagram stories.
European passport and Barcelona links
Having turned 16, the attacking-midfielder now has his European passport. That should aid his chances of joining a club on the continent, if that is what he so chooses to do.
However, despite him training nearby amid growing links with the La Liga champions, Barcelona sporting director Deco recently dismissed speculation over interest in Gabriel. He said: "There's nothing to say about this boy. It's normal we always have players linked with us."
"There's a huge market for that, even when they are young. We are not interested in any player in his situation. I'm not sure what's happening, and if he's still a Manchester United player."
"We are not involved in that. First of all, we need to understand how the situation is before we try to do something. To speak about young, teenage players, it is not our business."
United's efforts to keep him
United are understood to be keen to retain Gabriel's services despite his representatives making it clear he no longer wished to stay at the club. Reds bosses haven't given up on the idea of talking the youngster's camp around, with The Guardian reporting that they made him a scholarship contract offer in recent days in an effort to convince him to put pen to paper.
Nevertheless, they reportedly remain at risk of losing their best academy talent for as little as £350,000 in compensation.
