It was 20 minutes into the second half with the score locked at 1-1, when Gabriel Martinelli came off the bench to replace Matheus Cunha in Round of 32 clash with .
Having made 25 starts in his 53 appearances for Arsenal during the 2025/26 season — a season which saw the Gunners lift the Premier League title and reach the UEFA Champions League final — the forward did for Brazil what he has done so many times in north London: come off the bench and make the difference.
Gabriel scored the winner in a 2-1 victory that booked Carlo Ancelotti's side a place in the Round of 16 of the , where they will face Norway on Sunday. "He plays with great intensity. He really helped the team by scoring, and with him on the pitch, [Vinicius Jr] had much more space and became a constant threat," Ancelotti said after the match.
But the forward, who is a key member of Mikel Arteta's Arsenal squad and one of Ancelotti's most trusted options, having already featured in three of Brazil's World Cup matches, has not always been content with a place on the bench.
Corinthians' youth side were facing Juventus da Mooca, another club steeped in futsal tradition. Gabriel, playing on the wing, had already scored twice when his coach decided to take him off, and the youngster made no attempt to hide his frustration.
"We were winning about 4-1 and I took him off towards the end of the game. He was furious. I remember telling him, 'You've done your job, let's give the other lads a chance.' He just wouldn't accept it. I had to sit down and talk with him during the week. He hated coming off," laughed Daniel Magalhaes, Gabriel's youth coach at Corinthians.
“Gabriel joined the Coringao when he was six years old and stayed until he was 13 or 14. He played futsal with us the whole time before moving to the full-size pitch. As well as winning lots of titles, he was the top scorer in every age group He was a very quick young lad — exceptionally fast for futsal — which made him stand out,” said Magalhaes.
Born in 2001, Gabriel was 14 when his family moved from the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo to Itu, where he joined Ituano's academy.
Thiago Badari, his U-15 coach at Ituano, remembers the focus and determination of both Gabriel and his family in their efforts to turn him into a professional footballer. "He was always exceptional, miles ahead of the others. In that U-15s season he scored 15 goals in 16 games. He had an outstanding instinct inside the penalty area. So, even though he was slight, he usually played as a No9. He could score with either foot, along the ground, in the air, with his head. He already showed plenty of facets in his game.”
His performances at youth level quickly attracted attention from overseas. Interestingly, the first English club to keep close tabs on him was not Arsenal. "Manchester United had been monitoring him from an early age. Gabriel even travelled to England to training camps. From an early age, you always had the feeling he was preparing himself for something special in football," he added.
In 2018, still only 16, Gabriel made his senior debut for Ituano. A year later, he was named Best Newcomer at the Sao Paulo State Championship and the standout player outside the state's traditional powerhouses.
Gabriel had already been on Arsenal's radar for several years. Edu Gaspar was preparing to leave his role as Brazil's national team coordinator to become Arsenal's technical director after the 2019 CONMEBOL Copa America, and one of his first moves after arriving in north London was to sign Gabriel, initially with the U-23s in mind.
"The plan was for him to start with the U-23s, but as soon as he arrived, Unai Emery (the manager) brought him into the first-team squad for pre-season. After about ten days he told me, 'This boy is staying with us, in the first team'. Martinelli was a fantastic piece of business for Arsenal. The transfer fee wasn’t exorbitant by Premier League standards”, recalled Edu referring to a transfer fee in the region of €5 million.
Edu and Arsenal's scouting team always believed that Gabriel possessed the perfect attributes for English football.
"Gabriel had exciting qualities; he was a lad who could explode in transition. At Ituano he scored one goal picking the ball up deep in his own half and running the length of the pitch — a feat he would later repeat for Arsenal against Chelsea. He showed enough to convince us he was absolutely worth investing in."
Having overseen all three of Martinelli's contract renewals at Arsenal, Edu regards signing him as a great coup: "He's incredibly level-headed, whether he's starting or on the bench; whether he’s the star man and everyone is talking about him, or no-one is talking about him. He conducts himself well in every situation. It's no wonder he’s the darling of the Arsenal fans — they all love him.
"Success has never gone to his head. Gabriel is the kind of player who'll help you in any situation, in any position. He's always ready, and he always delivers." the former Arsenal midfielder said.
Sources: FIFA Official
