{"id":80512,"date":"2026-09-04T08:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T08:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/80512\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T08:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T08:37:10","slug":"former-barcelona-striker-questions-gabriel-jesus-signing-he-is-a-stopgap-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/80512\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Barcelona striker questions Gabriel Jesus’ signing: ‘He is a stopgap option’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jean Marie Dongou has questioned whether Gabriel Jesus is the long-term answer to Barcelona\u2019s search for an elite centre-forward.<\/p>\n

The former Barcelona youth-team striker believes Jesus can contribute goals and give Hansi Flick another useful attacking option, but he sees the \u20ac10 million signing<\/a> as a temporary solution rather than the forward Bar\u00e7a ultimately need.<\/p>\n

Notably, Barcelona had pursued Julian Alvarez before turning to Jesus, and Dongou accepts that the club made every effort to land the Argentine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, he expects the search for a long-term striker to continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cBar\u00e7a should sort this out later on \u2013 I\u2019m not sure whether that will be next summer or in January,\u201d the former said on Tot Costa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dongou sees Jesus as a short-term solution<\/p>\n

Jesus arrives with considerable experience from his time in the Premier League, but injuries and competition for places at Arsenal meant his career had lost some momentum before the move to Barcelona.<\/p>\n

\"GabrielJean Marie Dongou has questioned Gabriel Jesus\u2019 signing. (Picture credit: X\/@FCBarcelona)<\/p>\n

Dongou believes Flick could revive the Brazilian\u2019s best qualities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Gabriel Jesus is a stopgap; he\u2019s not the striker everyone wanted, but he is a great player, and if Flick can get him back to his best \u2013 the form he showed at City or Arsenal \u2013 we\u2019ll have a player who can really help the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will score goals in La Liga, but in the Champions League, he won\u2019t be able to step up to compete against Europe\u2019s top sides,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n

Barcelona\u2019s attack should still produce goals<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Dongou has little concern about Barcelona\u2019s ability to create chances.<\/p>\n

The former academy forward believes Flick\u2019s attacking structure gives whoever plays through the middle a strong platform to succeed, regardless of the identity of the striker.<\/p>\n

\"JulianJulian Alvarez was Barcelona\u2019s priority target. (Photo by Angel Martinez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI like what Bar\u00e7a create. Whoever plays up front will score goals \u2013 there\u2019s no doubt about that. I have absolutely no doubt about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is when teams of your own calibre come along; that\u2019s when we\u2019ll see if the team is ready to win the Champions League or to compete against the top sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have no doubt whatsoever that scoring goals isn\u2019t a problem, given the way they play and the chances the team creates,\u201d he analysed.<\/p>\n

Dongou\u2019s solution is that Barcelona should continue searching for top-level talent rather than settling permanently for players who are merely capable of contributing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBar\u00e7a must sign the best players in the world, not average players; if we want to invest in young players, we already have La Mas\u00eda. The rest must be players who make a real difference,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jean Marie Dongou has questioned whether Gabriel Jesus is the long-term answer to Barcelona\u2019s search for an elite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,222,223,3200,30188],"class_list":["post-80512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-gabriel-jesus","tag-jean-marie-dongou"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80512","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=80512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}