Gabriel Jesus don land Barcelona from Arsenal, and e already dey feel the Catalan club influence for everywhere. The São Paulo-born striker arrive at 29, at peak of him career, after almost a decade of Premier League experience. E don play under Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta, and two World Cups with Brazil don shape am. E sabi the social weight wey come with playing for one of the most successful national teams for the world, a side wey fit make one whole country stand still and stop heartbeat during every tournament match.
According to Sport, Jesus don already feel Barcelona global pull. E don play only small minutes across two matches, score him first goal, and e never move into him official residence while him family still dey London to finalise relocation. But media impact na immediate. Since e complete transfer, e gain one million Instagram followers in just fifteen days, taking am to 22.4 million. That number tell how warmly Barcelona fans welcome am. The newspaper call am the “Barcelona effect”, and numbers dey back am.
Few clubs fit command that kind interest among global public, and Barcelona don grow well well on social media in recent years. The club add 52 million new followers in 2025 across all official accounts. That reach spread across whole digital landscape. Data from Flashscore, world leading app for live scores and sports content, show say Barcelona top global ranking for page visits during August. The metric tracks how often users visit team page to check matches, results, standings, squad lists and statistics. Barcelona rack up 10.96 million visits, see off Real Madrid (10.75 million) and Paris Saint-Germain (6.17 million).
For field matter, Barcelona face Racing on Wednesday night for La Liga, and manager Hansi Flick admit say e fit rotate him team before the game. “We have to manage the minutes. Today was a recovery day and the training wasn’t very hard, and we’ll see tomorrow who starts and who gets more or fewer minutes,” e tell pre-match press conference. “Everyone wants to play and wants to be in the starting eleven, but we have to manage it.”
Barcelona attack don full of goals so far this season, but Flick fit shake things up to keep him players fresh and because plenty options dey available. Karim Adeyemi dey push for place in starting XI after e score brilliant goal last time out. Gabriel Jesus too dey hope to make him first start since e join from Arsenal.
Jesus insist say e want more prominent role at Barcelona and e ready to compete with Raphinha for starting spot for line-up. The 29-year-old join Barca from Arsenal this summer after four seasons with Gunners, where e help them end their wait for Premier League title last season. But Jesus bin dey seen as surplus to requirements for Mikel Arteta, and that lead to him €10m (£8.6m) move to Camp Nou.
The Brazilian forward score on him Champions League debut for Barca, but e be unused substitute against Levante on weekend. Raphinha provide two assists in the 4-2 win. Raphinha don directly contribute to nine goals (six goals, three assists) in five LaLiga games this season, and Jesus know say replacing him compatriot no easy task. “Rapha is scoring goals. He plays every game, he deserves it,” Jesus tell Tot Costa. “I’m going to try to compete and wait for my opportunity to play more and get more minutes. I want to score goals and help, and I don’t want to do it when it’s 2 or 3 or 4-0, I want to score important goals.”
After e join from Manchester City in 2022, Jesus score 32 goals and provide 18 assists in 123 appearances for Arsenal. Raphinha, who join Barca in 2022, don score 75 goals and register 52 assists across last four seasons with Blaugrana. Hansi Flick side face Racing Santander next on Wednesday as dem look to maintain perfect start to season, before travelling to Sevilla for final game before international break.
