Gabriel Appelt Pires (born 18 September 1993), sometimes known as just Gabriel (), is a Brazilian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays for

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

, on loan from Portuguese club Benfica, as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Resende

Born in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, Gabriel Pires and his older brother

Guilherme Guilherme is a Portuguese given name, equivalent to William in English. The feminine form of this name is Guilhermina. Diminutive forms include Guilhermino. Vilma (Portuguese form of Wilma) is another female variant of the name. Brazilian foot ...

started each of their careers at

Resende Futebol Clube Resende Futebol Clube, commonly known as Resende, is a Brazilian professional football club in Resende, Rio de Janeiro. The team compete in Campeonato Carioca, the top tier of the Rio de Janeiro state football league. History On June 6, 1909, ...

; Gabriel signed his first contract on 23 July 2010. He played his first senior season with the club during the

2011 Campeonato Carioca The 2011 Campeonato Estadual da Serie A de Profissionais do Rio de Janeiro was the 110th edition of the top tier football in Rio de Janeiro. It was organized by the Federação de Futebol do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FERJ). The competition bega ...

, the regional league in the state of Rio.

Juventus and loans

In April 2011, Italian newspaper, ''

Tuttosport ''Tuttosport'' is an Italian sport newspaper published in Turin, Italy. History and profile ''Tuttosport'' was first published on 30 July 1945. Renato Casalbore (who later died in the 1949 Superga air disaster alongside the Il Grande Torino foo ...

'' reported that

Juventus Football Club )''I Bianconeri'' (The White and Blacks)''Le Zebre'' (The Zebras)''La Signora Omicidi'' (The Killer Lady)''La Gheuba'' (: The Hunchback) , founded = as Sport-Club Juventus , ground = Juventus Stadium , capacity = 41,507 , owner = Agnelli ...

signed both Gabriel and Guilherme, however due to bureatic reasons, Gabriel couldn't move to Italy until after his 18th birthday. In January 2012 Gabriel officially signed with the Italian club for a fee of €2 million, though the deal had virtually been complete since 21 April 2011. After joining the Italian side, Gabriel joined the club's

youth academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

and played the remaining half-season for Juventus' reserve during the 2011–12 season. On 30 August 2012, Gabriel Pires was sent on a season-long loan deal to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

newcomer

Pro Vercelli Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli, is an Italian football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont. The club is mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Italy, with seven natio ...

, another

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

-based team, along with Juventus teammate, Alberto Masi. Gabriel made his Serie B debut on 9 September 2012 as a 61st-minute substitute in a 1–2 home loss against

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

. He made his first start on 15 September against

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; egl, label=Modenese dialect, Modenese, Sasól ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town ...

and went on to start the next ten league matches prior to suffering a major injury on 10 November 2012 in a home match against

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

. After four months on the sidelines, Gabriel returned to Pro Vercelli's starting lineup on 2 March 2013 in a 1–1 away draw at Juve Stabia. He remained in the club's starting lineup for the remainder of the campaign, making 25 league appearances and scoring 1 league goal. Gabriel Pires returned to Juventus on 30 June 2013 and two months later, he was sent out on another season-long loan deal to Serie B side

Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest city ...

on 26 August 2013. He made 19 league appearances for the club. On 23 July 2014, Appelt signed with Serie B side

Pescara Pescara (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Pescàrë; nap, label= Pescarese, Piscàrë) is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 119,217 (2018) residents (and approxim ...

on a season-long loan deal along with teammate

Vincenzo Fiorillo Vincenzo Fiorillo (born 13 January 1990) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Serie A club Salernitana. Club career Sampdoria Born in Genoa, Fiorillo started playing football in Nuova Oregina Calcio from the Oreg ...

. He appeared in 17 matches for the club, scoring once.

Leganés

On 4 August 2015, Gabriel Pires was loaned to Spanish

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

side

CD Leganés Club Deportivo Leganés, S.A.D. is a football club based in Leganés, Community of Madrid, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. It was founded on 23 June 1928. It holds home games at ...

, in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

-long deal. He made his debut for the club on 6 September, coming on as a late substitute for

Lluís Sastre Lluís Sastre Reus (born 26 March 1986) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. Club career Sastre was born in Binissalem, Mallorca, Balearic Islands. He emerged through FC Barcelona's youth ranks, but ...

in a 1–1 home draw against

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

. Gabriel Pires scored his first goal for ''Lega'' on 17 October 2015, netting his team's second in a 2–2 draw against

Girona FC Girona Futbol Club, S.A.D. is a professional football club based in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Founded on 23 July 1930, it plays in La Liga, to which they gained promotion in the 2022 Segunda División play-offs. Girona holds its home matches at ...

. He contributed with 37 appearances and seven goals during the campaign, as his side achieved promotion to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

for the first time ever. On 17 June 2016, Gabriel Pires signed a permanent three-year deal with the

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

side, who activated his buyout clause for €1 million fee. He made his debut in the main category of Spanish football on 22 August 2016, starting in a 1–0 away win against

Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues ...

. Gabriel Pires scored his first goal in the top tier on 17 September 2016, but in a 1–5 home loss against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

. The following 8 August, he renewed his contract until 2021.

Benfica

On 27 August 2018, Gabriel Pires was transferred to Portuguese side

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional association football, football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system, Portuguese footba ...

, signing a five-year contract.

Honours

Benfica *

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

: 2018–19 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Benfica 5–0 Sporting Lisbon
Soccerway

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pires, Gabriel 1993 births Living people Brazilian footballers Association football midfielders Resende Futebol Clube players Serie B players Juventus F.C. players F.C. Pro Vercelli 1892 players Spezia Calcio players Delfino Pescara 1936 players U.S. Livorno 1915 players La Liga players Segunda División players CD Leganés players Primeira Liga players S.L. Benfica footballers Qatar Stars League players Al-Gharafa SC players Brazilian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Spain Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Qatar Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Naturalised citizens of Portugal Footballers from Rio de Janeiro (city)