Legendary Manchester United forward Ryan Giggs admits to being baffled by JJ Gabriel’s decision to disrupt his young career and seek an Old Trafford exit, citing Arsenal’s Max Dowman as an example of how to act.

Old Trafford chiefs were left stunned when Gabriel requested to leave the club as soon as possible, with the 15-year-old talent looking to join another club elsewhere in one of Europe’s top leagues.

The news of Gabriel’s desire to quit Man Utd emerged straight after him scoring a hat-trick in one half of football on his UEFA Youth League debut for the club against FC Sabah Under-19s.

There was interest from European heavyweights Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona, but Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg has now revealed that Gabriel has now ‘decided to join’ Real Madrid.

Plettenberg wrote on X on Thursday: “BREAKING | JJ Gabriel and his camp are progressing in negotiations with Real Madrid. It’s close. Verbal agreement reached, as reported. Medical not yet scheduled. The 16 y/o gem has decided to join Real over Bayern, PSG and Barcelona.

“Move planned for January 1st thanks to his European passport. Manchester United will only receive training compensation. #MUFC.”

Giggs cites Dowman patience as Gabriel heads to Spain

Meanwhile, Arsenal youngster Dowman has been incredible since becoming the Premier League’s second-youngest ever player at 15 years and 235 days old.

And Giggs was keen to highlight to Gabriel that Dowman is still struggling to get a regular place in the Arsenal starting line-up 18 months later.

When asked about Gabriel’s situation at Man Utd, Giggs told Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube channel: “So far in his career everything is going fine, why would you disrupt that? You’re on the right track.

“I trained at 15, I didn’t play for the first team until two years later so you have to have that patience that people just don’t seem to have at the moment.

“And believe it or not, first-team football for Man United is completely different to playing in the youth team, playing pre-season for the first team, it’s completely different.

“That first game, yeah, you might do alright, but you have to do it for 40, 50 games a season. You’re going to get injuries, loss of form, bad results, so you have to be patient.

“If you’re on the right trajectory then just bide your time, no matter how good you are.

“Max Dowman is unbelievable but he’s not playing for Arsenal at the moment.

“I’m sure he’ll bide his time, I’m sure he’s getting impatient, but he’s not kicking off, he knows in a couple of years time he might be the main man for Arsenal.”