Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes was not selected by Tite for the Brazil squad to play at the Qatar World Cup and is still yet to make his international debut
Arsenal star Gabriel Magalhaes believes he missed out on the World Cup with Brazil after prioritising his son’s birth over playing in qualifying matches.
Gabriel was not part of the Selecao squad, with Tite preferring to select Chelsea ‘s Thiago Silva, Paris Saint-Germain’s Marquinhos, Real Madrid ‘s Eder Militao and Juventus ‘ Bremer as central defenders. Surprisingly, Gabriel has never been capped at senior level by Brazil despite playing for the under-20s and under-23s.
But he was in contention last year as Tite considered his options for Qatar. However, Gabriel chose to stay in London for the birth of his son, ruling himself out of qualifiers against Bolivia and Chile.
He thinks that choice ended his World Cup dream, telling GE, via ESPN : “These are choices. I went through it. My son was born, I was waiting in England and the next day I came to Brazil because I had injured my knee and needed to recover as quickly as possible. My wife stayed there for 40 days alone, with the help of a nanny.”