Gabriel Martinelli

Gabriel Martinelli is Arsenal’s electric Brazilian forward — pace, directness and a knack for big goals. For collectors he’s the value name in the modern core: a full Brazil international with the same age profile as the club’s headline players, whose cards have never carried their premium.

Gabriel Martinelli’s rookie card & rookie year

Martinelli’s card story is the mirror image of his captain’s. Where Martin Ødegaard was a global card subject as a 15-year-old — so his rookie-era cards predate Arsenal entirely — Martinelli arrived from Ituano in July 2019 as an unknown 18-year-old, plucked out of Brazilian state-level football that the major licensed products simply don’t cover. There is no meaningful pre-Arsenal Martinelli cardboard to hunt.

That makes the answer unusually clean: his rookie-era cards are Arsenal cards. He broke into the first team in 2019-20, scoring on his full debut in the League Cup, and his first widely collected licensed cards come out of that breakout and the 2020-21 season that followed.

One quirk of the calendar shapes what’s actually out there, and it’s worth knowing before you shop. Arsenal were outside the Champions League in 2019-20 and 2020-21 — which means Martinelli missed the Topps UEFA Club Competitions / Champions League checklists that carry most Gunners players’ early cards. His earliest cards sit in Panini’s Premier League products of that period instead, and his Topps UEFA issues only begin once Arsenal returned to Europe’s top competition. If you’ve searched “Martinelli rookie” on Topps UEFA and come up thin, that’s why.

As always in soccer, this is convention rather than a logo — there’s no card stamped RC that everyone agrees is the one — so the year in the listing title is what you verify before paying a rookie premium. For the full method, see the Arsenal collecting guide; for how his early cards rank against the club’s other young names, the Arsenal rookie cards list.

Which Martinelli cards to look for

Working from most accessible to most premium:

• Arsenal-era base & inserts — the natural entry point, across Panini Premier League / Prizm issues and, from Arsenal’s return to the Champions League onward, Topps UEFA Club Competitions and the relaunched Merlin line.
• Chrome & parallels — the chromium versions carry a premium over paper, and colored / serial-numbered refractors climb from there. His 2022-23 Topps Chrome UEFA Club Competitions #57 is a clean, in-print Arsenal-era Chrome to anchor a collection on (shown below). Note that base and Chrome checklists number differently — match the exact set name and number when you buy.
• Numbered refractors — the ladder runs through colored refractors into serial-numbered tiers, with Gold the well-known /50 level, up to the 1/1 SuperFractor. Tiers shift year to year, so read the card back rather than assuming last year’s ladder. The 2022-23 Topps Chrome UEFA guide breaks the full ladder down.
• Autographs — on-card signatures sit at the top of his market, and are the cards to grade if you land one.

For where his cards rank among the club’s best, see best Arsenal cards and the 2025-26 Topps UEFA Club Competitions review. Building the full club run? The Arsenal team set checklist covers where each Arsenal card sits in the numbering.

Buying tips

Singles trade on eBay — use the live rails on this page for real, current prices. Confirm the year and set in the listing, prefer graded copies (PSA or SGC) for anything above pocket-change money, and remember that on an active player in his mid-twenties, prices move with form, position and tournament runs. Buy the card you actually want to own.

Martinelli sits at the heart of the club’s modern core — cross-reference Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, Viktor Gyökeres and William Saliba, and see the full squad on the Arsenal team hub.