Ribeiro: Play Gabriel Barbosa or Sell Him

In today’s least surprising news, Gabriel Barbosa’s agent confirmed that his client is not happy with his situation at Inter. Speaking to Globoesporte, Wagner Ribeiro said that ‘Gabigol’ just wants to play, and that he is not happy with just picking up his paycheck for doing nothing. He did state that Barbosa does want to stay at Inter and become a fan favorite, but he needs to be given a chance by his coach.

That was all information any of us could’ve predicted so I was originally just not going to write an article on this. Then Ribeiro said something new, “if he really has to leave, it’ll be for a club of the same level as Inter, but going out on loan would not be a good move”. We’ve all been operating on the recent assumption that Barbosa was going to go out on loan in January to a lower-table Serie A side such as Pescara or Empoli in order to get him ready for Inter next season. It seems that Barbosa (or at least his agent) is not okay with that idea.

It’s clear that this is an attempt by Ribeiro (and possibly Barbosa as well) to put pressure on Stefano Pioli so Barbosa can start playing. Only time will tell if it will work and only time will tell if Barbosa really isn’t okay with a loan in January. All we know is that Ribeiro (and possibly Barbosa) has proclaimed an ultimatum: play Gabigol or sell him.