MANCHESTER UNITED’S ‘Kid-Messi’ wonderkid JJ Gabriel is set to train with Ruben Amorim’s first team at times this season.
At 14 years old, Gabriel is too young to feature in the FA Youth Cup despite becoming the youngest ever player to feature for the Under-18s.
The forward will not be 15 years old until October, but is already the talk of Old Trafford and beyond with his fast-tracked displays.
This season’s Youth Cup players have to be born before the cut-off date of 31 August 2010, with Kai Rooney eligible to feature.
Gabriel committed his future to United for at the least the next two years and has been tipped by insiders to become their youngest EVER Premier League player.
He is so highly rated that technical director Jason Wilcox and director of football Matt Hargreaves played active roles in keeping him at the club.
Gabriel was handed his first U18 start in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Everton, outperforming players who were mostly older and bigger.
United invited Gabriel to watch Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal in the directors’ box, following the teenager’s decision to stay amid interest from Europe’s biggest clubs.
He was then pictured with Amorim at Carrington on Thursday, with his family also introduced to the United boss.
The Portuguese gaffer, 40, will start working with Gabriel as he will be drafted into the first team group at times throughout the season.
While it’s not unusual for academy players to train with the big boys, it is rare for the youngest players to get the nod.
Gabriel made his debut for the U18s at the beginning of April and scored twice from the bench in a 13-1 hammering of Leeds.
That match saw him become the youngest ever player to feature for the U18s, with club legend Darren Fletcher in charge of his development.
He made a further two appearances for the U18s before the end of the season and scored again, while also featuring for England’s Under-15s.
Shooting to stardom under the name ‘Kid Messi’ on YouTube five years ago, the schoolboy signed a lucrative deal with Nike in February.
Gabriel, whose full name is Joseph Junior Andreou Gabriel, was born in London and is the son of former Republic of Ireland defender Joe O’Cearuill, who spent most of his career playing non-League after starting out at Watford and Arsenal.
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