Arsenal forward Gabriel Martinelli recently made it into Brazil’s 2022 World Cup squad, but it’s not gone down entirely well.
The 21-year-old is clearly a top talent, as he’s shown with his performances for Arsenal so far this season, but he also lacks experience at international level.
So far, Martinelli has just three senior caps ahead of this winter’s big tournament in Qatar, so it’s a big ask for him to step up and help Tite’s side perform in a competition they’ll be one of the favourites to win.
Former player and journalist Neto certainly thinks it was the wrong call, getting quite emotional about what he felt was a disgraceful and disrespectful decision by the Brazil manager.
Speaking during the program “Os Donos da Bola”, on TV Bandeirantes, as quoted by ESPN Brasil, Neto made it clear he felt Gabriel Barbosa should have been called up instead of Martinelli.
“This is a shame, a joke! I feel ashamed! Not because of Dani Alves’ story. What is Martinelli’s story? 33 career goals. This is a shame, a lack of respect for football.
“It shows how dirty football is, it’s dishonourable. It’s happened to me and you (Velloso) because we didn’t go to the World Cup because we didn’t play in Rio de Janeiro,” Neto said.
“Doing this with football shows that you don’t deserve the position you are in. Calling up Martinelli and not calling up Gabigol is heresy, a lack of respect.
“The biggest shame of all the call-ups. Calling up Martinelli shows that you, Tite, shouldn’t hold the position you do, because you’re not fair to Gabigol.
“The guy who scores five goals in the season, who walks around the mall here, nobody knows who he is… And not taking Gabigol, the guy who scored the goal of the Libertadores title, who scored 29 goals in the season.”