Giovanni dos Santos

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Giovanni dos Santos
Image:Giova2.jpg
Personal information
Full name Giovani dos Santos Ramírez [1]
Date of birth May 11, 1989 (age 17)
Place of birth Monterrey, Mexico
Height 173 cm (5'8")
Position Attacking Midfielder
Club information
Current club FC Barcelona B
Professional clubs*
Years Club Apps (goals)
2006- FC Barcelona B 8 (3)

* Professional club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 11/27/06.
** National team caps and goals correct
as of 11/27/06.

Giovanni dos Santos Ramírez (born May 11, 1989 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico) is an Mexican football midfielder who plays for FC Barcelona B and was part of the under-17 Mexican football team that won the FIFA U-17 World Championship 2005 held in Peru. Dos Santos, also known as "Gio" or "Giova", was a key piece to win the title.

A great playmaker, he is often compared to Ronaldinho both for his physical appearance and his skills with the ball. He is the son of the former Brazilian football player Gerardo dos Santos, but better known as "Zizinho", who played on the Mexican soccer teams América and León in the late 1980s, his mother is the Mexican Liliana Ramírez de dos Santos; he also has two brothers, an older, Eder and a younger, Jonathan who also plays for FC Barcelona, but in the Juvenil B category. The brothers Giovanni and Jonathan dos Santos are two of several highly-rated Mexican youngsters already playing in Europe.

His father can be recognized as the driving force behind Giovanni’s career, he founded a school in Monterrey named São Paulo en México in which he coached his children among many other kids, in 2001 São Paulo participated in the Dallas Cup, a prestigious youth tournament in the USA, winning the U-12 category with Giovanni as the star of the team. After that accomplishment Zizinho decided that Giovanni was ready to begin a more professional formation and he managed to get a trial for Giovanni with the Mexican first division team, Club Monterrey, on the trial he was immediately identified as a prodigy and quickly jumped the youth ranks to join their filial of professional third division.

Months later a youth team of Club Monterrey was due to participate on a tournament in France and the officers of the club decided to send Giovanni as a reinforcement. On that tournament he was scouted when a youth team of FC Barcelona played Giovanni's team, after the match a representative of FC Barcelona contacted Giovanni’s parents to offer a place for Giovanni on FC Barcelona’s youth system, their parents accepted and moved to Spain a year later.

Established in Barcelona with his parents and brothers Giovanni quickly adapted to his new way of life, both of his brothers made trials to join FC Barcelona youth system, but only Jonathan was accepted. Giovanni was placed on a category a couple years above his, but he didn’t struggled, on the Cadete A category he was Pichichi of the league with 28 goals, then he moved on briefly to Juvenil B and then to Juvenil A, where he won the Milk Cup Premier Category with FC Barcelona on 2005.

During the FIFA U-17 World Championship 2005 and wearing the number eight on the back he dazzled observers, experts or not, with his great performance during the tournament, he managed to assist on half of the goals of the Mexican team during the tournament, a fact that combined with his ability awarded him the Adidas Silver Ball as the second best player of the tournament, only behind the Brazilian Anderson, although many experts considered that the honor for the best player of the tournament must have been awarded to Dos Santos.

After the U-17 title Giovani returned to Barcelona, and went back to the Juvenil A category where he helped his team to make comeback in the league and win the regional title, this title allowed them to participate in the Youth Copa del Rey, where they faced other regional champions, among them their historic arch rival Real Madrid. Giovanni played once again a significant role during the tournament and helped the team win the national title of the category.

This summer of 2006 Giovani dos Santos was one of the few youth players invited to the preseason of the FC Barcelona senior squad, during a friendly match on July 29, 2006[2] he scored on what it was his debut game for FC Barcelona senior team against Aarhus. Still, his debut on an official match is pending, but it's expected that it would happen some time soon.

The inclusion of Giovani dos Santos in the Mexican National Team, senior and U-20 is one of many expected near-future possibilities, but the foremost possibility would have to be Dos Santos's ascension into FC Barcelona's first squad. It has been rumored that now that Rafael Marquez has acquired the Spanish citizenship and become a dual citizen a spot for a player from outside the European Union would open, and Dos Santos would be eligible to play for FC Barcelona; probably as a test during the FIFA World Club Championship, Giovanni will be in the squad for FC Barcelona as an option for Frank Rijkard.

Hugo Sanchez, newly appointed manager of the Mexican National Team, has made public that he maintains communication with the player, and intends to call him on the near future. Meanwhile it was already disclosed the list of players for the Mexican U-20 National Team in which of course the name of Giovanni dos Santos is present.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "FC Barcelona Japan 2006 Squad List" 10 December 2006, FIFA.com
  2. ^ "Goals and debuts in Denmark (0-3)" 29 July 2006, FCBarcelona.com

[edit] External links


FC Barcelona - Current Squad

1 Valdés | 2 Belletti | 3 Motta | 4 Márquez | 5 Puyol | 6 Xavi | 7 Guðjohnsen | 8 Giuly | 9 Eto'o | 10 Ronaldinho | 11 Zambrotta | 12 van Bronckhorst | 15 Edmílson | 16 Sylvinho | 18 Ezquerro | 19 Messi | 20 Deco | 21 Thuram | 22 Saviola | 23 Oleguer | 24 Iniesta | 25 Jorquera | 28 Ruben | 29 Valiente | 31 Dos Santos | 32 Crosas | 33 Jeffrén | Coach: Rijkaard
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