If there was anything to regret about JJ Gabriel’s stunning performance for Manchester United Under 18s in the FA Youth Cup on Wednesday night, it was that his goal in his team’s fifth round 4-1 win over Oxford United was scored at the end of the Kassam Stadium where there is no stand and therefore no spectators.
This kid deserves an audience for everything he does in the game. He is only 15 years old but he lit up a bitterly cold, sodden evening at a three-sided ground on a windswept plateau outside the Oxford ring road with a performance so luminous that it made you feel as if you were basking in the noonday sun.
His strike, a few minutes before half-time, was a thing of beauty. He took the ball with his back to goal 25 yards out and lost his man with a turn so sweet that it left his marker floundering.
Gabriel took another touch and then lashed in a vicious shot that bounced just in front of the Oxford goalkeeper and cannoned off him into the roof of the net.
Gabriel wheeled away towards that empty end of the ground where only parked cars and an outlet of Frankie and Benny’s waited and watched, and slid on his knees towards the corner flag. His slide left long scars in the waterlogged turf. For much of the rest of the night, it had felt as if he were walking on air.
So, to borrow from the former Sky analyst Andy Gray, if the question was ‘can the boy labelled “Kid Messi” do it on a wet Wednesday evening in Oxford when the wind is howling and the rain is beating down and the first-team head coach, Michael Carrick, has come to watch?’, the answer was emphatically ‘yes, he can’.
JJ Gabriel struck Manchester United Under 18s’ second goal in the 4-1 thumping of Oxford United in the FA Youth Cup on Wednesday night
The 15-year-old is one of the hottest prospects in world football, and has trained with United’s first team this season
Of course, there need to be caveats.
There must always be caveats when a player is only 15 and so many potential pitfalls lie in wait. There must always be caveats when an injury can derail the most promising career. There must always be caveats when a kid begins to grow into a man and the pressure upon his shoulders grows heavier.
But for now, there is only excitement. And it is justified excitement. There is something special about Gabriel’s talent that it does not need an expert to discern. There is something special about his talent that marks him out as one of the brightest young stars in the world game.
It wasn’t just Gabriel’s goal that marked him out as a future superstar at the Kassam Stadium. He may have first come to public attention when he starred in a viral YouTube football skills video as an eight-year-old but this boy is an awful lot more than a show pony.
I was late to this party. It was the first time I had seen Gabriel play live but you only need to watch him for a short time to realise the scale of his attributes. He played as a number 10 on Wednesday night and he has an instinctive awareness of space and how to find it.
He has that knack of dropping into areas between the lines, making it hard for the Oxford youngsters to pick him up. He is a beautiful passer of the ball. He is not a Hollywood passer, either. He does what is effective.
One improvised, lobbed ball over the top of the Oxford defence set Bendito Mantato free on goal to fire in a shot that bounced back off the post.
Gabriel is an intelligent player, too. He reads the game cleverly. He reads the movements of others, both team-mates and the opposition. And his close control, even when he is running at pace, is mesmerising.
Again, everybody will be aware of building the boy up and asking much too much of him, much too young. That danger has always come with the territory. When a player is special, there is bound to be a buzz around him. The promise of youth, seeing a young footballer at the start of what promises to be a golden journey in the game, is one of the most exhilarating things about sport.
There is something special about his talent that marks him out as one of the brightest young stars in the world game
Gabriel has been nicknamed ‘Kid Messi’, and became the youngest player ever to represent United’s Under 18s in April last year at the age of just 14, scoring twice on debut against Leeds
Nearly 30 years ago, I went to Edgeley Park to watch Stockport County play West Ham United in an FA Youth Cup third-round tie so that I could see Joe Cole play. There was the same buzz about Cole as there is about Gabriel now. It was said that Manchester United had already bid £10million for him.
It was also said that whenever Sir Alex Ferguson bumped into Harry Redknapp, the then West Ham manager, the first thing he asked him was ‘How’s Joe Cole?’. That night in Stockport in December 1998, the crowd was swelled by people who had come to watch him play.
His talent, too, was already obvious. He made one brilliant run at the end of the first half, slaloming through most of the County defence, before being brought down in the box. West Ham scored from the penalty to go 3-2 up. It was the game’s decisive goal.
I spoke to Cole afterwards outside the West Ham dressing room. Well, I think it was him anyway. That was another age and there was not as much footage of him playing as there would be now.
Neither I nor my colleagues were quite sure what he looked like. We spoke to somebody but I still wonder whether it was one of Cole’s team-mates winding us up and protecting him from the spotlight at the same time.
Cole’s story is instructive where Gabriel is concerned, though. Cole had a magnificent career. He won 56 caps for England, played in three World Cups and won as many Premier League winner’s medals with Chelsea.
And yet, particularly at the start of his career, it sometimes felt that because expectations had been set so high for him, he found it hard to live up to them.
There was the same buzz around Wayne Rooney soon after that. And around Jack Wilshere. I wrote a critical piece about one of Wilshere’s early performances in the Arsenal first team and always regretted it. Wilshere was a wonderful player who had a fine career. It would have been even better if he had not suffered cruelly with injury.
Joe Cole’s story is instructive for Gabriel. Cole had a magnificent career but it sometimes felt that because expectations had been set so high, he found it hard to live up to them
I wrote a critical piece about one of Jack Wilshere’s early performances in the Arsenal first team and always regretted it. Wilshere was a wonderful player who had a fine career
None of those who crammed into the main stand at the Kassam Stadium on Wednesday night will forget when they saw JJ Gabriel play for the first time
Perhaps it should be mentioned at this point that there was also a kind of fervour surrounding the emergence of Ravel Morrison at United. He was touted as a wonderkid, too, but he struggled to make an impact in his senior career. For a variety of reasons, sometimes things do not work out.
At this age, Gabriel bears comparison with players like Cole and Wilshere. He is a stellar talent. He is a 15-year-old playing with and against boys two or three years older than him. Earlier this season, he set a new record for the youngest player ever to score in an FA Youth Cup tie.
If his progress continues uninterrupted, he will soon be pushing for a place in the Manchester United first-team squad. He has trained with them already and the reports were that he did not look out of place.
For now, it is just a privilege to see him shine at the start of his career in football. Whatever he does in the game, none of those who crammed into the main stand at the Kassam Stadium on Wednesday night will forget when they saw JJ Gabriel play for the first time.