Gabriel, a Brazil center-back playing for Arsenal, accepted pre-match interviews from several media outlets. On November 14, the Brazil national team will play its first friendly match of this international break against Japan. The second part of the interview is below.
Reporter (ESPN): Gabriel, you're currently focused on the upcoming matches against Japan and Singapore, but I imagine you might also be keeping an eye on some domestic Brazil matches.
Have you been following Corinthians' relegation situation? Have you talked to André, who was called up to the national team this time, about the team's current situation? Given your consistent and very public support for Corinthians, how do you view the team's current predicament?
Gabriel: No, I haven't talked to him about those things yet. Our current focus is on the Brazil national team, and we are all concentrating on the work here. We will welcome him in the best way possible. He is a very talented young player.
As I said, our attention is currently on the Brazil national team. I am not focused on Arsenal or Corinthians right now, but on the Brazil national team. I hope we can play well in the next two matches.
Reporter (TNT Sports): Good afternoon. In recent days, Raphinha's comments about his playing time being managed in the Brazil national team have sparked a lot of discussion in Brazil.
You've experienced a similar situation in the past, where your playing time was managed due to physical condition and load management concerns. This is especially true in a very busy season, where we also had the special circumstance of the World Cup being held in the middle of the season.
I think the balance between club interests and the desire to represent the national team is a topic worth hearing players' opinions on.
We know that clubs have some very crucial matches, and the national team is also currently in a transitional phase, needing some core players to stay with the team to help young players gradually grow.
How do you personally view this situation? And how do players feel in such circumstances? This topic has attracted a lot of attention in Brazil recently, so I think it's very important to hear your thoughts as players.
Gabriel: Firstly, we are all high-level players, so we always want to play.
I think, regarding Raphinha's situation, many people may have misunderstood his way of expressing himself. We are also human, and sometimes we certainly need rest, not just physical rest, but sometimes mental adjustment as well.
But this doesn't mean we don't want to play. As I said, we are all high-level players, and we want to keep participating in matches. We know that, especially in Europe, we often play a match every two or three days, so the number of games is indeed very high.
And when we come to the national team, we certainly want to enjoy this time as much as possible, playing and learning with our teammates.
I think that many times people misunderstand some of the players' comments, and Raphinha's situation is an example of this. But within our team, no one thinks he came to the national team to rest, or has similar thoughts.
We all know how much he has given to the national team, and how much he wants to perform well for the national team. He is a player we can all learn from, whether it's his work ethic or his constant desire to play and win matches, which is highly commendable.
Reporter (Vamos Channel): It's been a few months since the World Cup. Perhaps now you've had time to understand and process that experience. What did participating in the World Cup mean to you? How did it change your life?
Gabriel: It was a dream come true, it has always been a dream for me, and it still is. I have another dream, which is to participate in the next World Cup.
That experience indeed gave me a lot of experience. Of course, the final result was not what we hoped for, but the dream still exists. There are many things we can learn from it. Now, we hope to be fully prepared for the next World Cup.