"When I was little I didn’t play as a defender," Gabriel Magalhaes told ESPN Brasil as cited by Sport Witness. "I used to like to play as a striker, I liked to score goals.
"So I grew up seeing great players like Ronaldinho Gaucho, among others. I liked to play up front and I started playing defence when I went to a football school. I was already 13 years old, the coach put me at left-back, then in defence. And I was like 'hey, here?'.
"But then he said, 'I’m going to take you to Avai for a trial and you’re going to be a defender. So I went to Avai, I took the trial as a defender and passed. From then on… But I already played as a defensive midfielder, as a left-back in the pros, so everything is fine."
Now we now Gabriel had experience of playing in more advanced positions. Perhaps this explains his quality with the ball at his feet: he looks very tidy and confident in possession.
This is, in fact, a story similar to that of David Luiz, who revealed he had played in a No. 10 role before switching to centre-back.
"It [the Premier League] is a great league, with the best players in the world," he added. "One defender I admired a lot and was able to play against was Van Dijk."
Virgil is certainly a player to learn from. Arguably the best centre-back right now, the Liverpool man is fast, tenacious, possesses brilliant positional awareness and is a set-piece threat.
We certainly hope Gabriel will be to Arsenal what Van Dijk is to Liverpool—a player who transforms a good team into a champion.
