Real Madrid have reportedly secured a verbal agreement with Manchester United academy forward JJ Gabriel, but the teenager\u2019s exit from Old Trafford is far from straightforward.<\/p>\n
Reports say Gabriel\u2019s representatives raised concerns over playing time, with those demands left unanswered by Michael Carrick. That helped spark a sequence of media briefings and talk of an immediate termination of his contract, turning a departure into a complicated dispute.<\/p>\n
Once it became clear that one of Europe\u2019s most highly regarded academy players was available, interest quickly followed. Bayern Munich publicly entered the picture, while Paris Saint-Germain reportedly saw an offer turned down. Arsenal and Manchester City were also said to be involved, but Real Madrid now appear to have won the race for his signature.<\/p>\n
According to the reports, the Spanish club have reached an agreement with the player and his representatives on terms for a professional deal ahead of a proposed January move, as first reported by Sky Germany\u2019s Florian Plettenberg and later backed by BBC Sport.<\/p>\n
The England U-17 international can move within Europe while still only 16 because of an EU passport linked to Cypriot and Irish relations. Even so, his choice to join Real Madrid rather than a domestic rival is expected to carry both financial and reputational consequences for United, who are reportedly weighing legal action.<\/p>\n
Gabriel is still registered with Manchester United despite reportedly walking out and ignoring attempts at contact after scoring a hat trick on his UEFA Youth League debut. His junior agreement, signed when he was 15, remains valid, and the club is believed to be considering \u201clegal action\u201d against any European side that tries to sign him, the Manchester Evening News reports.<\/p>\n
There has not yet been any dialogue between United and Real Madrid. FIFA must still approve the move, while the training compensation United may receive is expected to be modest, with figures as low as \u00a3100,000 ($135,000) and unlikely to rise beyond \u00a3300,000 ($405,000) for the player known as \u201cKid Messi.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Real Madrid have a verbal agreement with JJ Gabriel, but Manchester United\u2019s exit battle is becoming messy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22230,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,987],"tags":[59,180,182],"class_list":["post-22231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-real-madrid","tag-featured","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}