4 Years Ago, This Footballer Was Painting The Streets For World Cup, Now He's A Match Starter (Photos)

Gabriel Jesus

 

The viral pictures from 2014 show a 17-year-old Gabriel Jesus, brush in hand, helping to paint the street where he lived as World Cup fever swept Brazil. Four years on, 21-year-old Jesus is no longer the painter but the painted.

 

It has been a meteoric rise for a player whose £27 million move to Manchester City from Palmeiras in January last year introduced an European audience to a talent on which Brazil are pinning so many hopes.

                                      

He helped Manchester City demolish a series of records en route to lifting the Premier League title and now he’s in Russia trying to help his country.

 

 

Now, several adjoining houses in Jardim Peri, the Sao Paulo neighbourhood where he grew up, have been painted with an image of Jesus performing his now familiar goal celebration, where he pretends to phone his mother, Dona Vera, his biggest fan and harshest critic.