Deco publicly clarified that he had no intention of signing Manchester United's 15-year-old starlet.

Manchester United's 15-year-old academy player JJ Gabriel recently expressed his desire to leave the club and appeared in Barcelona, sparking widespread speculation that the La Liga giants might be interested in him.

In response, Barcelona's sporting director Deco stated clearly at a press conference that the club has no interest in signing the young English star.

Deco emphasized that Barcelona is frequently involved in transfer rumors with various young players, but the club has not been involved in this particular player's situation. He stated bluntly that the team has no intention of signing a player currently embroiled in contract and departure controversies, and will not make any moves until the situation becomes clearer. Publicly criticizing other teams' young academy players is also not Barcelona's style.

As a rising star in European football, Gabriel scored a hat-trick in his debut in the UEFA Youth League on September 10th, but has not participated in Manchester United's daily training since then. Besides Barcelona, top European clubs such as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Paris Saint-Germain have reportedly expressed interest in him.

Since Gabriel's parents have Irish and Cypriot backgrounds respectively, once he successfully obtains an EU passport, he will be able to freely sign with a club within the EU when he turns 16 on October 6.

In response to the transfer storm sparked by this young player, Manchester United manager Michael Carrick had previously publicly called on the outside world to exercise restraint and rationality, and to avoid putting excessive media exposure and scrutiny on underage players.

Image source: Internet