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Wednesday 13 March 2019

Gabriel Jesus interview: 'I didn't know anything about England. Fernandinho was like my godfather'

It can be easy to lose sight of the human factor that lies beyond the broad strokes that make up a footballer's CV.

The costs, the sacrifices, the challenges that come with upping sticks and moving halfway across the globe... these don't appear on a player's Wikipedia page, but they're in the background, shaping everything.


Gabriel Jesus, who was just a teenager when he left Brazil to pursue his dream, is well-placed to comment on the culture shock that such a move entails. "I was 19 years old, in another country with a different culture and a different language," he recalls. "I didn't know anything. It would have been difficult if it wasn't for the people helping me."

I interviewed Jesus about his adaptation to life in England, pizza, living in Manchester and Palmeiras. You can read it over at Bleacher Report.