He might be earning a six-figure salary as he lights up the Premier League, but Gabriel Jesus will only be getting ‘pocket money’ from his controlling mum, his brother claims.
Strict Vera, who raised her four children alone in a poor district of Sao Paulo, reportedly controls almost every aspect of her famous son’s life, from the food he eats to where he goes out, and even the girls he meets.
Humble beginnings: Rather than feeling trapped, Jesus appreciates his mother’s influence over his life. He describes Vera, who raised four children by herself in a poor district of Sao Paulo, as a ‘woman warrior’
The player once described her as ‘harder to dribble than any defender I’ve ever faced’.
In a touching Instagram post, he also referred to her as a ‘woman warrior who always took care of me and my brothers’.
And the matriarch, who has travelled with the footballer as he settles in Manchester, has vowed to continue to keep her son in line even as he turns into English football’s hottest property.
It will mean making sure Gabriel eats her own, low calorie version of his favourite dish, strogonoff.
And continuing to make his daily shake of yoghurt, bananas and oats, again Vera’s own recipe which she claims helps stave off her son’s intestinal cramps, which ‘run in the family’.
Gabriel – who she calls by her nickname ‘Baby’ – is also banned from going out on the town, drinking alcohol or smoking, while would-be WAGS of the new soccer sensation should also be warned.
Vera recently said in an interview: ‘Girlfriends have to live by my rules, and there’ll be no heavy kissing. Staying over, only once in a while.
‘I will never accept that my son disrespects the daughters of others. No son of mine is going to get someone else’s daughter pregnant. I demand respect because I raised all three of them on my own, with the help of God.’
And she revealed that the striker ‘must lower his head when I speak to him. I may be good natured, but I demand to be respected. Gabriel has always been mischievous, but at least he’s never disrespected me.’
Strict mum: Such is Vera’s strictness that Jesus, far left when he was younger, ‘must lower his head’ when she speaks to him. ‘I may be good natured, but I demand to be respected,’ she said in a recent interview. ‘Gabriel has always been mischievous, but at least he’s never disrespected me’
