Gabriel Rodrigues dos Santos

Who is Gabriel Rodrigues dos Santos?

Gabriel Rodrigues dos Santos, commonly known as just Gabriel, is a versatile Brazilian footballer, who plays primarily down the right hand side, currently playing for Internacional.

He earned his first full cap for the Brazilian international side in a friendly win against Guatemala on 27 April 2005.

He has spent most of his career in his native Brazil, having started in São Paulo and reaching his peak while playing for Fluminense in 2005 and 2007. He had a short spell playing for Málaga CF at Spanish La Liga in 2006, but was unable to prevent the club's relegation and returned to play for Cruzeiro.

After being released by Cruzeiro on 22 May 2007, Gabriel finally signed for one of his former clubs, Fluminense, on 25 August 2007. He played an important role in the team's Copa Libertadores performance, ending up as runners up.

On 17 July 2008, he agreed terms with Panathinaikos and costed €1.2 million. He was brought in as the new attacking minded right full back and he proved the expectations wright in his first friendly game against Charleroi for the pre-season. However, it seems that he needed more work in his defensive game for the European standards. For that reason, Panathinaikos' then manager Henk ten Cate used Gabriel mainly as a right midfielder or winger in 4–2–3–1 and 4–3–2–1 formations. Gabriel was impressive in his new role, scoring twice in the Greek Super League already and gaining a place in the starting XI, ahead of the reliable Dimitris Salpingidis, the wonderkid Sotiris Ninis, and new transfers such as Lazaros Christodoulopoulos and Alexandre Cleyton.