JJ Gabriel faces a big setback as Man United stops him from playing in the competition.
JJ Gabriel has faced a big disappointment from Manchester United, even though he has pretty much confirmed his move to Real Madrid. Gabriel is set to join Real in January after agreeing with his team, who wanted him to leave United because promises weren’t kept.
The 16-year-old told United he wanted to leave and become a free agent, but the club didn’t make it easy. While not training at United’s Carrington ground, Gabriel has been keeping busy with training sessions in Barcelona and Madrid, even doing double sessions.
He was recently stopped in Madrid by the well-known newspaper MARCA, where he posed with a copy of the front page that featured him and even asked if he could keep it. When asked to choose between La Liga’s two biggest clubs, Gabriel said, “Obviously Real Madrid,” and shared that he dreams of winning the Ballon d’Or one day.
Although Real is allowed to sign him in the winter transfer window because he has a European passport, his progress has hit a small bump. MARCA reports that Real wants Gabriel to grow with their Castilla team before moving to the first team. But, he can’t play in the UEFA Youth League for the Under-19s since his registration with United is still active.
Gabriel had already made a great start in that competition, scoring a hat-trick before news broke that he wanted to leave. United tried to keep him, offering a contract extension and even promising a seat in the new stadium. However, they couldn’t convince him to stay and will now lose out on a lot of money.
Believing he’s worth around £100 million, United will only get a small training compensation fee, rumored to be about £300,000. That’s due to FIFA’s rules, which say compensation is due only when a player moves between clubs in different countries.
The amount would have been much higher if Gabriel moved to another Premier League club because the English academy rules are different. In that case, the clubs would negotiate a fee, and if they couldn’t agree, a tribunal would decide on the amount.
For example, Liverpool paid Chelsea £2.8 million upfront for Rio Ngumoha, plus another £1.2 million in performance bonuses. Chelsea also gets 20% of any future transfer fee if Ngumoha moves on. United were hoping for something like this with Gabriel, including a 20% sell-on fee, but that won’t happen now.