Gabriel Jesus extends his drought and has already accumulated eight World Cup matches without having scored a solitary goal
The Arsenal striker missed his starting chance against Cameroon and has a very doubtful future in Qatar
Gabriel Jesus is the worst ‘9’ in the history of Brazil in World Cups… at least this is what confirms a very cruel statistic. The now 25-year-old center forward of Arsenal added his eighth match without seeing a goal this Friday between Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, in the inconsequential Brazil-Cameroon (0-1), which ratified the first place of Canarinha, which now will play in the round of 16 against South Korea, and that nothing helped the Indomitable Lions, who were eliminated.
Never in the history of the ‘five-time champion’ was there a greater sequence of an unmarked center forward. The statistics are devastating. Conscious of it, Neymar Jr. who watched the match from the stands, jumped onto the pitch at the end of the match to cheer on the attacker, who will hardly have minutes now that the single-match qualifiers begin. Richarlison is the starter, and, as a second option, Gabriel Martinelli appears.
The Gabriel Jesus thing will not have been a lack of opportunity. In this edition, he has participated in the three matches of the ‘canarinhos’ in the first phase. He played the final 11 minutes in the win against Serbia (2-0), in which Richarlison signed a double, and 17 minutes in the Brazil-Switzerland (1-0). In these two games he didn’t even shoot on goal. And, against Cameroon, in his first game as a starter, he spent 68 minutes on the pitch, until he was replaced by the flamenco player, Pedro, who has been the striker in the last edition of the Copa Libertadores. This time, finally, he made his first finish in the tournament.
Other forwards have more negative records, such as Denilson, who did not score in 12 games in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, or Paulo Cesar Caju, with 9 games, between the 1970 and 1974 World Cups. In both cases, however, neither of them played at the point of attack.
For those who had ‘9’ of the quality of Jairzinho, Romario, Ronaldo… Gabriel Jesus is not only out of tune, but is going to be a black sheep of the most fearsome team throughout the history of the World Cups.
