JJ Gabriel
Barcelona sporting director Deco has distanced himself and his club with a move to sign wantaway Manchester United wonderkid JJ Gabriel, GIVEMESPORT can reveal.
The Catalans are amongst a number of high-profile European clubs linked with signing the 15-year-old, after he made it clear he wants to leave the Old Trafford outfit.
Gabriel has been pictured in Barcelona with Lamine Yamal and holding a Barca shirt with his fellow teenager's name and number on the back, amid reports that he is in talks with the La Liga champions over a move to Spain.
However, Deco has moved to pour cold water over those rumours.
GMS senior football correspondent Ben Jacobs is out in Portugal for the Portugal Football Summit, and asked the Barcelona chief about interest in Gabriel, but he was quick to shut down any speculation.
He said: "No, there is nothing to say about this boy. It's normal that players are linked with us, there are huge markets involved with that even when they are young. We are not interested in any player in his situation.
"I'm not sure what's happening, I don't know, he's still a Man United player, we're not involved in that, we need to understand all the situations before we try to do something and speak about young, teenage players that are not our business."
Gabriel has interest from a number of Premier League clubs, as well as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and of course Barcelona in Europe.
The 15-year-old made the decision that he wanted to leave known to Manchester United just one day before he was due to be named in the first team squad to take on Brighton & Hove Albion in the Carabao Cup. Had he played in that match he would have become United's youngest ever player.
He told United officials that he wanted his registration with the club to be cancelled and has since stopped training with the Red Devils. He turns 16 at the start of October and copuld leave then if United terminate his registration, with his dual-owned Irish passport allowing him to move to Europe without any issues.
He has been playing in Premier League's U18 league, starting out in the Man Utd side in that division at the age of 14. He scored 23 goals in the competition last season and was an integral part of the United side that reached the U18 Cup final and the FA Youth Cup final. He would later be named Premier League U18 Player of the Year and United's U18 Player of the Year.