Sometimes, he wore the No. 9 jersey. Other times, the No. 10. But usually he could be found running on the pitch in youth football games and leaving defenders for dead with the No. 11 shirt on his back. His name on the teamsheet was Gabriel Fernando de Jesus, but few would have recognised that name, not even inside his own dressing room.
"For us, he had always been Borel. 'Borel, do this,' 'Borel, do that...' We all used to call him that, his team-mates, everybody," Erasmo Damiani, Palmeiras' former academy director, tells Bleacher Report.
"Honestly, I'm not sure when exactly that changed.