Arsenal attacker Gabriel Martinelli will join Neymar, Vinicius Junior, Casemiro and many more stars of the game in the Brazil World Cup squad for this month's tournament.
The Brazilian has made three appearances for his nation after only making his debut in March this year. The call has received plenty of criticism from former Brazil midfielder Neto but Martinelli's form this season has warranted the opportunity to help the Selecao lift their sixth World Cup trophy.
Neto told Os Donos da Bola: "This is a shame, a joke! I feel ashamed! Not because of Dani Alves' story. What is Martinelli's story? 33 career goals. This is a shame, a lack of respect for football. Doing this with football shows that you don't deserve the position you are in. Calling up Martinelli and not calling up Gabigol [Gabriel Barbosa] is a lack of respect. The biggest shame of all the call-ups."
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Martinelli was quick to rubbish Neto's comments and backed the decision to include him in his first major tournament. He said: "I think this is normal. Some people in Brazil don’t know me and it’s also normal to say that other players deserved to be there [the squad]. But I’m pretty cool about it, I think this is normal.
"I know what I’m doing at my club, I know my ability and I know what I can do. And you can be sure that I will do my best for the Brazilian team, in whatever I can help the team I will help. It will be a great experience for me."
Martinelli and the Gunners will conclude the first half of their season tomorrow evening with a trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers. The 21-year-old will be seeking a sixth goal of the season for Mikel Arteta's side before heading to the Middle East.
Ahead of the trip to Molineux, footage of the Gunners' final training session showed Martinelli sharing a joke with compatriot Gabriel Jesus and defender Gabriel. Martinelli and Jesus were both included in Tite's squad while Gabriel, unfortunately, missed out due to Marquinhos, Eder Militao and Thiago Silva's call-up.
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