Gabriel trains in Barcelona as Man United risk losing teenage prodigy for £350,000

Manchester United face the prospect of losing their most prized academy talent for a nominal fee after 16-year-old JJ Gabriel continued his self-imposed exile from Carrington by training privately in Castelldefels, Barcelona, with a personal coach.

Gabriel requested to have his registration with United cancelled last month, a move that stunned the club just as first-team head coach Michael Carrick was preparing to include him in the squad to face Brighton — a fixture in which the teenager could have become United’s youngest-ever player to appear in an official match.

Footage shared on Friday by J-Stars coaching, a private coaching account with 40,000 Instagram followers, showed Gabriel scoring two precise right-footed free-kicks in the style of David Beckham. Gabriel subsequently re-posted the clip to his own Instagram stories, offering a public signal of his continued development away from United’s facilities.

Having turned 16 on Tuesday, the attacking midfielder now holds a European passport, which would ease any potential move to a club on the continent. Reports have linked him with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Paris Saint-Germain, though Barcelona sporting director Deco moved to cool speculation this week.

“There’s nothing to say about this boy,” Deco said. “It’s normal we always have players linked with us. We are not interested in any player in his situation. First of all, we need to understand how the situation is before we try to do something. To speak about young, teenage players, it is not our business.”

Despite Deco’s dismissal, the fact that Gabriel is conducting his training in the city where Barcelona are based has done little to dampen speculation. United, for their part, have not given up on retaining him. The Guardian reported that the club made Gabriel a scholarship contract offer in recent days in an attempt to persuade him to stay, and club bosses are understood to believe there is still a chance of talking his camp around.

Nevertheless, if Gabriel does leave, United’s compensation for a player widely regarded as their most exciting academy prospect in years could be as little as £350,000 — a figure that underscores the urgency of the club’s efforts to resolve the situation.