Remarkably cool in front of goal for a player aged just 19, Brazil striker Gabriel Jesus is, as FIFA.com discovered, equally composed in an interview, even when discussing the imminent challenge of representing the host nation at the Men's Olympic Football Tournament at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympics.
Nor can his laid-back manner be interpreted as a lack of enthusiasm for what is only his second official competition in the colours of A Seleção. It is simply the fact that, for him, it is all just football.
"That's what my whole life's been about," said the youngster, currently leading the scorers' charts in Brazil's domestic top flight, the Campeonato Brasileiro.
Gabriel Jesus is one of those ever more rare cases of a player who, prior to joining the academy of a major club, in this case Palmeiras, went about cutting his teeth in frantic kickabouts on the streets of his Jardim Peri neighbourhood and in the fiercely competitive Sao Paulo amateur leagues (futebol de várzea), where he would do battle with defenders often much older than himself.
“I played street football from the age of seven and later went into the várzea," said the attacker, who joined Palmeiras' much-famed academy in 2012. "Sometimes I'd play as many as three or four matches a day: I couldn't get enough of it.
"It'd get to the point when my muscles would cramp up. It's football. I can't put my mind to anything else. I'm not interested in hanging out or partying. For me, it's all about the pitch: training, playing. But even when I go home afterwards it's football the whole time. I think I'm obsessed!”
Yet in order to have the opportunity to spend so much time with a ball at his feet, Gabriel Jesus was fortunate enough to count on the unlimited support of his family – and particularly his mother Vera. Given free rein to play the beautiful game to his heart's content, that approach to his favoured 'extra-curricular' activity has paid dividends, with the Sao Paulo-born forward now among the hottest young starlets in Brazilian and world football.
Finding the netIn just his second full year as a pro, Gabriel Jesus has struck ten goals in 14 games in the Campeonato Brasileiro for current league leaders Palmeiras, one of the country's most historically successful clubs but without a Brasileirão title since 1994. The gifted hitman also netted four times in five Copa Libertadores matches, exhibiting a nose for goal that once saw him score a record 37 times in 22 matches in the U-17 Paulista Championship.
Impressive stats indeed but in a way they should not surprise, as that U-17 competition was one of the few times he was taking on players his own age. Since his time in amateur football, he has grown used to rubbing shoulders with much older players, such as in Campeonato Brasileiro action now and also in the upcoming Olympic Football Tournament. Look no further than goalkeeper Fernando Prass, a colleague at Palmeiras, who has been included as one of Brazil's over-23 contingent at the age of 38.
“When I started playing with the bigger lads, they'd stick me out at right wing-back," recalled the front-runner, who stopped playing amateur football at 16 – though he admitted he sometimes finds it hard to turn down invitations to join in kick-arounds in his old neighbourhood. "But to be honest, I'd end up playing as a striker or wide attacker, further forward. That was when the lads started to let me play in my proper position, up front, battling out with the big defenders."
His informal footballing upbringing has certainly taught him plenty, to the extent that even at 19 he has the air of a veteran. "In várzea the guys don't give a damn, it's something else," he said. "They go into tackles to break your leg. Here I take whacks, but it's much calmer. On top of that, we used to play on dirt pitches. I'm just saying that a lot of lads nowadays have it easy, playing on artificial turf.”
It is in part thanks to such toughness and drive that, from his humble beginnings in Jardim Peri, Gabriel Jesus's upward trajectory has been rapid. His first match for his country came with the U-20 squad in a friendly encounter in Austria, then came the chance to travel to New Zealand to contest the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2015.
A Seleção ended that tournament as runners-up, after losing a hard-fought final 2-1 against Serbia after extra time. "That was 99 per cent fantastic, but it just lacked the final one per cent," he said. "Unfortunately we came up short. That team really deserved , but I think that we were happy with our performance."
Now he finds himself even closer to the game's elite, a situation that has come around almost as quickly as the goals have flown in for him. "Everything is still very new, but I'm not someone who ever rests on what he's achieved," said the striker, set to meet Brazil and Barcelona icon Neymar for the first time in the Olympic squad.
While Brazilian fans must be hopeful of the pair combining in style in attack, for Gabriel Jesus it is merely just another chance to get on the field and do what he enjoys most. "Despite the fact he's a superstar, one of the world's best, to me it's normal. I don't care about things like that . I just want to play and help the team. I'm doing that for Palmeiras right now and I want to do the same for A Seleção.”