The Athletic has sent our reporter Jack Lang to the Under-17 World Cup in Brazil to report on the next generation of superstars. The second instalment of the Stars of the future series looks at a Brazil and Palmeiras forward…
He is named after Juan Sebastian Veron and he wanted to be a cowboy.
If that doesn’t immediately make Brazilian teenager Gabriel Veron your new favourite player, there isn’t much hope for you. Go directly to football jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200.
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Still here? Excellent. Because while that technicolour backstory means Veron could afford to be a middling talent and still stoke the imagination, he also happens to be really, really good.
A touchline-hugging, zig-zagging whippet of a winger, he has long been regarded as the next big thing at his club, Palmeiras. His youth coach there calls him “an idol of the academy” and thinks he can follow the path walked by their last star graduate, Gabriel Jesus. Over the last few weeks he has come to wider attention, too, putting in a series of firecracker displays for his country at the Under-17 World Cup.
Given that Barcelona have a scout watching his every move, and Palmeiras have already turned down two bids in the region of €10 million for him, there’s a good chance he’ll be coming to a major club near you before too long.
First, though, that name, which he owes to an old family neighbour in Assu, a cattle-herding town in Brazil’s sweaty top corner. When Gabriel’s parents were scrabbling around for name ideas, the neighbour — a football fanatic who had three daughters but had always longed for a son he could name after his favourite player — suggested Veron.
Gabriel Veron Fonseca de Souza. It was different; they liked it. Veron himself likes it too. He says he wants to live up to the name, even if his game could hardly be more different to that of the former Argentina midfielder.
The original Veron was languid, elegant. He played football in cruise control. This new Veron is twitchy, explosive, always looking for the right moment to jam the pedal to the floor. The only real stylistic echo is to be found in his socks, which remain resolutely rolled down.
Veron is a born dribbler. He is fast – very, very fast – but also measured. It’s all very well haring down the flank, but you have to know when to slow down, when to bide your time. It’s in the hips – ginga, they call it here – and it’s in the eyes: you tell your marker a story and then change the ending. One minute you’re there, and the next you’re not. Veron is still young, but he has all of that.
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“It’s the essence of Brazilian football,” Brazil Under-17 coach Guilherme Della Dea says. “He’s already a master at it.”
Witness his part in his team’s opening goal of the tournament. When Veron picked the ball up on the edge of the box, a cluster of five Canada defenders stood before him. Four seconds and seven touches later, they were scratching their heads, Joao Peglow having been presented with the easiest goal he will ever score.
Veron added another assist against New Zealand. Against Angola, he scored the goal of the tournament so far – a madcap slalom so good it was actually funny. There was less end product in Monday’s quarter-final win against Italy, but an electrical current still crackled in the stands every time he got the ball. Not for nothing do his team-mates call him “Bolt”.
Palmeiras Under-17 coach Artur Itiro knows Veron’s game better than anyone, and says he has never seen a player so naturally talented in one-on-one situations.
“He has a great relationship with the ball, but that’s only part of it,” Itiro explains to The Athletic. “He is also able to keep control at high speed. You don’t see many players who are able to marry those two characteristics, even at senior level. There are plenty of quick, explosive wide players, but Gabriel also has great balance and a vast repertoire of tricks. He can flick the ball over a defender’s head, do eye-catching things like that…
“He is a player who unbalances opponents, and he can do it on both wings. On the left, he cuts in and drives towards the box; on the right he likes to reach the byline. And we have even been using him as a No 10 recently, trying to make the most of his dribbling skills in the tight spaces around the penalty area. That shows that his game is not just about speed.”
Veron himself describes his style in slightly simpler terms. “Beating my marker is my job and I get a lot of joy from it,” he tells The Athletic. “I’m always looking to go at my man, to dribble past him, to make things happen. I like those individual battles.”
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Nor is that competitive spirit limited to the final third of the pitch. Veron also relishes his defensive duties, tracking back diligently and energetically. “He has a great understanding of the game and is a really hard worker,” continues Itiro. “He’s got an unbelievable appetite. He is always asking more of himself.”
Veron confirms as much – “I still need to work on my technique; I can perfect that more” – but it bodes well for his future prospects that he has already ironed out two minor deficiencies in his game over the last year.
The first was his poor record in front of goal. “He always set up a lot of goals for his team-mates, but at first he didn’t shoot very often,” says Itiro. “We really worked on that with him, trying to get him to be more decisive.”
Veron watched YouTube videos of Romario and Ronaldo, studying their runs into the box. Slowly, the results started to come. He scored nine times in six matches at a youth tournament in Spain last year, including one in the final as Palmeiras overcame Real Madrid. His newfound opportunism was on display in Brazil’s win over New Zealand, when he pounced on a loose ball to complete a 4-1 rout.
Veron was not just goal-shy when he first arrived at Palmeiras as a 15-year-old; he was shy in general. “We hardly ever heard his voice,” laughs Itiro. “He was quite contained, definitely not a big talker. But over the last year he has started to understand the importance he has to the team, and he has opened up. He’s a bit of a joker, which has surprised some people, and he has taken on a leadership role. When a guy who performs at a high level consistently starts to talk, his team-mates listen. He is now the captain of the team, which shows how far he has come.”
He has stepped up for his country, too. When Brazil face France on Thursday, they will do so without two key players: Reinier, who was not released by Flamengo, and Talles Magno, who got injured against Chile. Veron has had to shoulder more responsibility, and he has not been found wanting. And he won’t be satisfied with a semi-final exit, either.
“Winning this World Cup would be a massive step for my career,” he says, before casting ahead to the future. “After that, I’ll be thinking about Palmeiras. I want to become an icon there, like Gabriel Jesus. He’s a great example for me, not just because he is a good player but also because he is very dedicated.”
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Will he follow Jesus to the major leagues, too? When Palmeiras set his release clause at €60 million, they must have done so in the knowledge that the vultures would begin to circle at some stage.
Veron dribbles the question with trademark insouciance. “I’ll think about Europe later,” he laughs.
(Photo: Buda Mendes/FIFA/Contributor)