// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Why schoolboys have become a huge part of football's transfer market
JJ Gabriel is one of the most highly-rated prospects in English football
A 15-year-old growing up in the UK faces many tough personal decisions about their future - which school subjects to study, which social circle suits them, and where their priorities lie in life.
But in the past few weeks the choices teenage Manchester United striker JJ Gabriel has been making about his future in football have drawn huge public attention in sports media and online.
Gabriel has informed United he wants to leave the club and join another. BBC Sport has reported that he has stayed away from training and begun talking to other clubs because he and his representatives are unhappy with United's handling of the 15-year-old's progress.
That a transfer saga involving a footballer so young could generate so much interest highlights a truth that to many is uncomfortable - money is changing how the football transfer market works, and children are increasingly deemed to be among its most valuable commodities.
So what is behind the rise in transfers involving boys who in some cases are not even old enough to have taken their GCSEs, what kind of influence can the money on offer have on agents and parents, and what exactly are the country's top football clubs getting out of it?
"It's crazy when you think about it," says Ryan Cardwell, former youth scout at Liverpool and Southampton.
"In what other kind of world would 15 and 16-year-olds be spoken about in the media like this?"
This summer alone, all six of the Premier League's wealthiest clubs either signed a highly-rated academy player from another, or lost a youngster to a direct rival.
"It is such a competitive market," Cardwell explains. "There are now tens of transfers between the elite academies every summer, when it used to be the case that if you were already at one of those, you would likely stay the course.