{"id":80425,"date":"2026-09-04T04:39:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T04:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/80425\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T04:39:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T04:39:37","slug":"gabriel-jesus-took-pay-cut-for-dream-barcelona-transfer-from-arsenal-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/80425\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriel Jesus took pay cut for ‘dream’ Barcelona transfer from Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gabriel Jesus<\/a> said he took a pay cut to ensure he landed his “dream” transfer after signing for Barcelona<\/a> from Arsenal<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Jesus has joined Bar\u00e7a<\/a> on a three-year contract after the two clubs agreed a deal worth up to \u20ac15 million (\u00a312.85m) with a sell-on fee included.<\/p>\n

“I took a significant salary drop, but it’s a dream to be here,” Jesus confirmed at his presentation.<\/p>\n

“But it wasn’t just me who had to make an effort to get the transfer over line, Bar\u00e7a also played their part.<\/p>\n

“If you had asked me one month ago, I would have said it was unlikely this would happen. At 29, I didn’t think I would have the chance to come to Bar\u00e7a.”<\/p>\n

Jesus’ move to Barcelona developed quickly over the weekend after the Spanish champions failed to land their top target, Atl\u00e9tico Madrid<\/a> striker Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Jesus joined Barcelona after four years at Arsenal.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The Brazilian says he only learned of the Catalan club’s interest a week ago having previously had the chance to join them a decade ago before he signed for Manchester City<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“A week ago I received a message that it could happen,” he added. “When I started to think it was a real possibility, I was so excited. Now I can’t wait to start training and playing.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t annoy me [being Plan B to \u00c1lvarez], it doesn’t bother me. What annoys me is if people say I’m a bad guy, which has never happened in my life — or if I am not playing football, that bothers me.<\/p>\n

– Why Barcelona turned to Jesus, and why \u00c1lvarez could still join them<\/a>
– Jose Mourinho’s first Cl\u00e1sico on Real Madrid return set for Oct. 25<\/a>
– Bar\u00e7a’s Anthony Gordon: LaLiga less forgiving than Premier League play<\/a><\/p>\n

“I have the chance to play for Barcelona, a chance I had 10 years ago and now life has offered me that opportunity again.”<\/p>\n

Jesus had made a strong start to his Arsenal career after joining the Gunners from City in 2022 but had fallen out of favour in recent years.<\/p>\n

After suffering an ACL injury in 2025, he failed to ever really win his place back in Mikel Arteta’s team, with Kai Havertz<\/a> and Viktor Gy\u00f6keres<\/a> preferred ahead of him, but he insists he has fully recovered.<\/p>\n

“The last two years have been really complicated after the knee injury,” Jesus said. “I was out of the game for almost one year, but it’s in the past. I feel good physically now.<\/p>\n

“I recovered well, returned to action for Arsenal and I am 100% ready to play and give my all.”<\/p>\n

Jesus arrives to fill the gap vacated by the departures of Robert Lewandowski<\/a> and Ferran Torres<\/a> this summer.<\/p>\n

As the only natural No. 9 in Hansi Flick’s first team squad, he complements attack that also includes Lamine Yamal<\/a>, Raphinha<\/a>, Anthony Gordon<\/a> and Karim Adeyemi<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gabriel Jesus said he took a pay cut to ensure he landed his “dream” transfer after signing for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92],"class_list":["post-80425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}