GABIGOL’S CHANCE TO START AGAIN

Now, Gabi will need to start over. But he always knew how to start over.

To make mistakes is human and everyone knows that. Gabigol made a mistake and he knows it. He was wrong to refuse to take the doping test at the correct time and to complain about the test. He made a mistake by wearing another team's shirt, being in a bad phase. I highlight this because if he had been at another point in his career, perhaps the situation would have had a different impact. It was wrong to delay in recognizing the error. In lying. He made a mistake, but he apologized.

I still think he (also) made a mistake because he should have been training on his day off and not barbecuing and drinking beer. Only by getting in shape will he be able to acquire the rhythm of the game to fit into Tite's scheme. But that debate is for later. I don't know if losing the number 10 shirt solves the problem, but it affected Gabigol's ego, it did. Terminating the contract would go a long way.

Now, Gabi will need to start over. But he always knew how to start over. In 2016, at the Olympics, he played as a winger in a team with 3 attackers. When he returned to Santos, on loan in 2018, he was top scorer in that Brasileirão. He arrived at Flamengo, won the Libertadores title and made the club buy him, for almost 100 million reais, from Inter Milan in 2020. When, even hanging, always “piled”, he went 18 games without getting a third yellow card and carried the team towards the Brazilian title. When, in 2022, he retreated, he made space for Pedro and scored the goal of another Libertadores title, against Athlético.

More than a chance, Gabigol gains a life. It's up to him to come in and do his best. Impossible, it's not. There are six months left for the marriage between the new number 99 and Flamengo to end. Gabigol still has a chance to be friends with his “ex”. That is, if he doesn't leave in July, of course. He's part of it. It has a place in the Brazilian market. It is speculated that Cruzeiro, Bahia and Corinthians are keeping an eye on the attacker.

But, at 27 years old, at Ninho do Urubu or another team, he gets another chance. Just want it. He has at least 8 years of career ahead of him. And we know that sport has these things: training, overcoming and sacrifice usually bring surprising results. Athletes overcome themselves, especially because the work “gives back”. Just know if Gabi will want to take advantage of this new chance.

The number 99, Gabigol's new shirt, has already become the infinity symbol on his social networks. Infinite for being marked in the history of the red-black team? Would the love he has for Flamengo be infinite? Or infinite because, close to the end, there is also the beginning? It's up to Gabigol to want to start over.

Opinion text by Amandda Souza

Journalist, editor and sports commentator