Call Your Momma | By Gabriel Jesus

December 18, 2017 7:58 AM

Whenever I score for Manchester City, my mother calls me. As soon as the ball hits the back of the net, the phone rings. It doesn’t matter if she’s back home in Brazil or if she’s in the stadium watching me. She calls me every time. So I run to the corner flag, and I put my hand to my ear, and I say, “Alô Mãe!” When I arrived at City, people thought this was really funny, and they kept asking me what it means. There’s a quick answer, which is that I love my mother, and she’s always calling me. And there’s a longer answer, which starts when I was a boy with a dream.
posted by appleses (9 comments total)

Hard for a Spurs fan to feel much affection for City after the weekend, but this managed to get me there.
posted by qldaddy at 8:47 AM on December 18, 2017

Great story, thanks for posting this. I'm not a Manchester City fan, but I suppose I am now a Gabriel Jesus fan.
posted by cloeburner at 8:51 AM on December 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

As a Saints supporter I kind of hate everything football related right now, but not that story. That story was awesome. Thanks for posting.
posted by COD at 9:38 AM on December 18, 2017

I don't know very much about the Players Tribune and don't read it regularly, but posts like this make me regret that I don't check it out more. The players' voices come through so well -- I loved the last piece that was posted here by Dion Waiters. Thanks for the post!
posted by gladly at 9:47 AM on December 18, 2017

Gabriel Jesus earns £150,000 - at today's exchange rate: $200,000.

PER WEEK.

I'll say that again. His salary is ~$10.5 million per year, excluding endorsements etc.

I'm sure he's a nice bloke. I'm glad he calls his mum. It'd be nice, when nice public figures are interviewed, they talk about that and what they are doing with it - 250 pairs of boots is approximately one day's wages for this dude.
posted by lalochezia at 10:14 AM on December 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

He's 20. Give him some time to sort out his life. Also, I hope that you get your knickers in a similar twist each time there's an article about Facebook. Zuckerberg's worth 72 billion and all we have to show for it is a stolen election and the death of human interaction.
posted by cloeburner at 10:35 AM on December 18, 2017 [19 favorites]

What a lovely essay. I don't follow football, but I'm glad this guy got to follow his dream and that it came true for him.
posted by cobain_angel at 10:35 AM on December 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

Agreed, a great essay, very thoughtful.
posted by Secretariat at 10:38 AM on December 18, 2017

I don't really know Portuguese to speak it, but I can read it with much effort (basically, 50% comprehension is instantaneous and every 10% beyond that comes with multiplied increasing effort), but I noticed that it's not a full direct translation. The English took out some phrases which make it an even warmer piece of writing in my opinion. For instance, he follows up the line about knowing superheroes with "Don't laugh. It's true. I'll prove it to you." So it may be worth clicking through to the Portuguese if you read any romance language.

And I like that the Players Tribune has that bilingual method of presenting. That is truly nice.
posted by seyirci at 9:39 AM on December 19, 2017