One way or another, the chances are Norwich supporters have been taken aback by Gabriel Sara since he swapped São Paulo for Norfolk two years ago. Most likely because of the Brazilian’s tigerish performances in midfield, a major driver behind Norwich’s push to return to the Premier League with a double-header against Leeds the hurdle between them and the Championship playoff final. Maybe by his infectious smile or his near-flawless English.
Perhaps they have spotted him paddle boarding in Great Yarmouth or preventing his Alaskan malamute, Baloo, named after the Jungle Book bear, from haring after the seals on Horsey beach. “It was kind of dangerous because he was trying to swim to catch them,” Sara says. “I was like: ‘I’m not going to be doing this again! He is almost 10 months old and 36kg, growing all the time.” Sometimes Sara takes his three dogs to the park for a kickaround of sorts. “They have their own formation: 3 v 1,” the 24-year-old says, laughing. “On days off I like to walk, I like the sea. I’m still learning how to surf but I have to wait for the season to finish before I can do that.”
Sara partly subscribes to the theory that he initially struggled to settle in Norwich after an £8m move from São Paulo because his border collie, Luffy, and corgi, Aurora, had to quarantine for three and a half months before being able to join him in England. The name of his first dog, which remains with his parents in Joinville, southern Brazil, was born from the architect of Brazil’s quarter-final defeat to France at the 2006 World Cup: Zinedine Zidane. When it dawned on Sara that Zidane would retire soon afterwards, he trawled through videos of him in his prime. “I would say to my dog: ‘Hey Zizou Zidane,’” he says.
“As a Brazilian kid, you felt: ‘We’re going to win the World Cup, look at this team, it’s unbelievable.’ And then we got France and at the time I didn’t know their players. I saw a bald guy with amazing, gold boots and I was like: ‘Wow.’ It was crazy because the best team you’ve ever seen, the players you grew up watching, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Dida in goal, this guy just smashed them. He played with a real elegance. I was like: ‘Man, what this guy did today was pure football.’ From that day I was crazy about him.”
Growing up, Sara’s father, Jorge, who hails from Rio de Janeiro and played domestically, passed his appetite for the game on to him and his brothers, João and Samuel. “He grew up in this culture where football means everything. Even now when I lose, my dad will be sad the whole weekend.” His father is deeply superstitious and so, after a couple of fruitless visits to Carrow Road earlier in the season, he will steer clear on Sunday. But there is no hiding his support for Sara and Norwich; these days Joinville has a large Canaries contingent: “The kit man goes crazy with me because every time my dad comes over he is like: ‘I need 30 shirts.’”
Sara, an easygoing character who makes warm company, was initially sceptical about leaving behind São Paulo, a Brazilian institution with 20m supporters that he entered aged 13, but was won over by Norwich’s former sporting director Stuart Webber. There is even a sense that Sara, the first Brazilian to play for the club, has a higher ceiling than Norwich’s former stars James Maddison and Emi Buendía. Ultimately, Sara’s aim is international recognition. “The level in the Championship is so high and the club, the structure, the pitch, is amazing, and the city’s welcome was so warm. It was like love at first sight. If I had the chance to do this move again, I would do it 100 times. It has really helped me develop as a player.”
A conversation with São Paulo royalty, Rogério Ceni, will always stick in the memory. Ceni, Sara’s manager for a couple of years, made 1,237 appearances for the club, playing into his 40s, scoring an incredible 131 goals, 61 free-kicks, 69 penalties and one from open play. A reasonable record for a goalkeeper. Sara witnessed Ceni’s technique first-hand – “at training he would take free-kicks and wouldn’t miss, it was unbelievable” – and absorbed his words of wisdom. “He taught me that when you win a game in Brazil you basically buy yourself a week, so you have a week of peace, to relax, have dinner, enjoy yourself. If you lose: stay at home, work, focus on the next game. It shows how passionate the people are and at the same time it is a little bit crazy. Here the expectations are high but it’s different: ‘All right, we’re human beings, you know?’”
It has not been a smooth upward trajectory to this point. Norwich were 17th at the start of November after a home defeat to Blackburn, with the manager, David Wagner, feeling the supporters’ ire. Since then, however, only promoted Leicester and Ipswich, Southampton and Leeds have picked up more points in the division. “When we had the bad run, of course everyone had their doubts, we heard ‘the manager is going to get sacked’, but everyone was feeling like: ‘We’re not a bad team, the boss is not a bad manager, so what’s really happening?’ We stopped, we had a meeting and the boss said: ‘I take responsibility, you guys take responsibility and we work together.’ From there we started playing more like friends and everything started clicking. We have been through a lot of bad times, so maybe now it is time to enjoy good times together.”
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Wagner has been in this position before, leading Huddersfield to the Premier League via the playoffs seven years ago, when team spirit proved king; at the end of the regular season Wagner gave each of his players personalised wristbands decorated with their initials and his then no-limits motto. For Sara, the concept of playoffs is new territory. “I’m used to having a [league] system where four [teams] go down, four go up and that’s it. When I came here I was like: ‘It doesn’t feel too fair for the team who is in third because they were there for the whole season.” If Norwich win them he will doubtless feel different. “It would be very fair,” he says, smiling.
Sara has enjoyed a fantastic season personally. Unsurprisingly, he was named in the English Football League’s Championship team of the season and no midfielder in the division has registered more goal contributions (13 goals and 12 assists). Wagner has made the point that Sara’s numbers are particularly impressive given his “team-first” mentality, something that shines through when he puts the next six days into perspective. “For me, everything I did this season, if we don’t manage some success, it will not be the same, as special,” Sara says. “We have to leave everything that has happened behind and enjoy this new challenge.”