Gabriel's Shirt Sales Up 350 Percent

The Arsenal player who experienced the biggest disappointment at the Puskás Aréna on Saturday night was Gabriel Magalhaes. The Brazilian defender took the fifth and decisive shot in the penalty shootout of the Champions League final, the ball went far above the crossbar, and PSG embraced the cup 4-3. The player who took the field in Budapest on Saturday night as "the last penalty taker who could be a hero" closed his Instagram with an emotional post before the night ended: "It's painful, but I'm proud of this team and everything we achieved together this season. Thank you to our incredible fans for your support every step of the way. You deserve to celebrate this journey with us and enjoy the parade today! See you next season!"

The report from The Athletic on Monday morning revealed the surprising response on the Arsenal fans' side of the story: Arsenal shirt sales with Gabriel's name printed on them rose by 350 percent over the weekend. The Brazilian defender became the top-selling name printed on Gunners jerseys over the weekend. At one point his sales doubled those of any other shirt being sold. The player who, after the penalty, cried on the bench and collapsed to the ground with his head in his hands — and who according to Mikel Arteta had "volunteered" for the fifth penalty — received a different message from the fans with this gesture: "You are Arsenal, we are with you."

There were more than a million Arsenal fans at the championship parade held on the streets of London on Sunday. This trophy parade was to celebrate Arsenal's Premier League championship won after a 22-year gap, but the sadness of the final day had softened the atmosphere. Gabriel and Eberechi Eze — the Arsenal players who missed two penalties on Saturday night — heard their names chanted by fans while on the bus; this scene will be remembered as the most beautiful consolation for the pain experienced on Saturday night. The Gabriel shirts distributed that same night were waving at the top of the hill on Sunday.

Looking at the actual story of the match, Gabriel's penalty duty also became clear with Arteta's explanations. "He wanted to take number five honestly," said the Spanish manager in the press conference. "Normally the penalty takers would be Bukayo [Saka], Martin [Odegaard], Kai [Havertz] for sure. We knew that if we got extra time on penalties, the penalty takers would be different players, still with the quality when you see Eze take penalties in training, he doesn't miss any, but then you have to do in this moment." Gabriel carried the pressure that missing the fifth penalty would create by his own consent. He also went into the record books as the first player to send the ball above the crossbar in a Champions League final penalty shootout since 2005 — the last example was AC Milan's Serginho in the 2005 Istanbul final against Liverpool.

Declan Rice's words were a response that reflected the emotion shown by the fans: "Devastated. Missing a penalty in a Champions League final isn't nice. But we love them. Look, that happens in football. They aren't going to be the last players to miss a penalty in finals. Everyone has missed a penalty. Without them two this season, we wouldn't have won the Premier League. It's cruel, but we take the positives." This summarizes the dressing room's feeling — a picture where no one blames anyone.

Arsenal's statistics in this final are the other part of the story. According to Opta data since the beginning of the season (2003-04), Arsenal experienced the lowest possession share of any team in Champions League finals: 24.7 percent. Arsenal also went into the list as the only team to have two penalties off target in a Champions League final penalty shootout. In the European Champions League history, Arsenal still stands among the clubs that have played the most matches without reaching a UEFA Champions League trophy with 226 matches. This statistic stopped at it on Saturday night, but Monday's story shows that the fans are ready to close this page.

Looking at Gabriel's Arsenal career, the 27-year-old Brazilian had come to London from Lille in 2020 for around 27 million Euros. Within five years, he became the centre of the team's defensive heart, writing the defensive identity of modern Arsenal together with William Saliba. This season has been a period in which contract extension talks took their final form, which even overcame the hamstring injury he suffered before the match against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final in March. For Gabriel, Saturday night was the most painful scene of the season but this is not the final scenario. Another Arsenal player will take over the penalty duty in the upcoming Premier League season; but Gabriel will continue to wear the jersey — and now on the backs of 350 percent more fans.

To summarise in a paragraph: A player who missed a penalty in Budapest on Saturday night became the top-selling name in his club over the weekend. This is a piece of data that shows what kind of transformation modern football fandom is going through — while the old paradigm was on the "scapegoat" line, the new paradigm is within the framework of "let's support him, let's write his name on our backs." The Athletic's report is not just a sales figure but the announcement of a new era in football culture.

Source: The Athletic

Image: softfootball.com