Norwich City struck gold by signing £6m South American star – He perhaps left Carrow Road too soon | OneFootball

Norwich City signed Gabriel Sara for £6 million from Sao Paulo in 2022 but there will be regret he didn't stay for longer than last summer.

In the summer of 2022, Norwich City brought in Brazilian midfielder Gabriel Sara for a fee believed to be in the region of £6 million from Brazilian Serie A giants Sao Paulo.

Over the course of two seasons, Sara asserted himself as one of the best players in the Championship in an inconsistent Norwich side that would eventually reach the semi-finals of the play-offs in the 2023/24 campaign and was named in the EFL’s Championship Team of the Season.

Quite impressively, though, it didn’t take him too much time to settle either with Sara winning Norwich’s Player of the Season award in his first year in England in the 2022/23 season.

A 2021 Campeonato Paulista winner with Sao Paulo, Sara had walked into a Norwich side that had just been relegated from the top-flight and quickly made himself an integral, if not the integral, part of their squad.

He departed for Turkish Super Lig champions Galatasaray last summer and, whilst a reasonable step up for the now 26-year-old, there will perhaps be a regret within the Norwich fanbase and hierarchy that they let him go too soon.

Gabriel Sara’s impact at Carrow Road

For a few years, Norwich’s recruitment has been quite specific and gone away from traditional EFL recruitment, becoming one of the first teams to look abroad more regularly, something that has become commonplace across the EFL a lot more in the last 18 months or so.

Seeking to emulate business such as Emi Buendia and Onel Hernandez from recent years, as well as several German-based players under the management of Daniel Farke with Sporting Director Stuart Webber, the Canaries struck gold with the addition of Sara in 2022.

An unknown to most hardened EFL watchers, and with the perceived wisdom that younger players from so far abroad may struggle to adapt to English football initially, Sara showed a consistent ability to not only ride the rough stuff but provide quality that was beyond expectation.

Capable of playing in pretty much every single position across the pitch, Sara is the archetypal throwback of a ‘do-it-all’ box-to-box midfielder that left supporters purring and it was of course no surprise to see him become a player of such interest to many clubs.

His potential and what Norwich could have made

He signed a four-year deal at Norwich in 2022 so had two years left on his contract which will have played into the decision to try and maximise his value, knowing that as a Championship club, they wouldn’t have been able to renew him for much longer if at all.

Moving to Turkey for a fee believed to be just over £15 million just two years after their £6 million investment represented good business but the feeling does remain that if they kept hold of him for one more year and potentially managed to renew that contract, just how much he would go for now – and whether or not it could have helped Norwich maintain a top six, or even top two push, thus saving Johannes Hoff Thorup’s job, who was sacked by the Norfolk-based outfit after a 3-1 defeat to Millwall on Easter Monday.

Whilst at Galatasaray, in a star studded squad boasting the likes of Victor Osimhen, Mauro Icardi, Dries Mertens, Hakim Ziyech and many other big names, Sara has one again established himself as a key man as the Istanbul giants look set to see of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce to defend their Turkish title.

Sara was Norwich’s gem and whilst recognised at the time, it has only been since the hole he has left has been seen has his impact been even more understood and appreciated.