Giovanni dos Santos

He is a Mexican football player. He plays as a striker. He also known as "Gio" or "Giova"

Giovani dos Santos Ramírez (born May 11, 1989 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico) is a Mexican football striker who plays for FC Barcelona and was a member of the Mexican National U-17 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 in winning that title.
He is the son of the Brazilian retired football player Gerardo dos Santos, better known as "Zizinho", who played for the Mexican soccer clubs América and León in the late 1980s. Gio's mother is the Mexican Liliana Ramírez de dos Santos; he has two brothers and two half brothers, an older, Eder and a younger, Jonathan who also plays for FC Barcelona, but in the Juvenil B category.
His father can be recognized as the driving force behind Giovanni’s career, he founded a school in Monterrey named São Paulo in 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 him a trial with the Mexican first division team, Club Monterrey, in which 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 in a tournament in France and the officers of the club decided to send Giovanni as a reinforcement. In 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, his parents accepted and moved to Spain a year later.
Giovanni was placed in a category a couple years above his, but he didn’t struggle, in the Cadete A category he was Pichichi of the league with 28 goals. He then moved on briefly to Juvenil B and then to Juvenil A, where he won the Milk Cup Premier Category with FC Barcelona in 2005.
During the FIFA U-17 World Championship 2005 wearing the number eight on his back Gio 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 should have been awarded to Dos Santos.
After the U-17 title Giovanni 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.
In the summer of 2006 Giovanni dos Santos was one of the few youth players invited to the pre-season of the FC Barcelona senior squad, during a friendly match on July 29, 2006 he scored in what was his debut game for FC Barcelona senior team against AGF Aarhus. Still, his debut in an official match is pending, but is expected to happen next season, as club president, Joan Laporta, has announced that Giovanni Dos Santos will play with the Barcelona first squad in the upcoming 2007-2008 season.
Hugo Sánchez, manager of the Mexican National Team, has made public that he maintains communication with the player, and intends to call on him in the near future.
In the U-20 World Cup Qualifying round he scored twice; once against St. Kitts and Nevis in the 86th minute and the second Against Jamaica in the 56th minute. He had to sit out the last game versus Costa Rica due to the fact that he had received a yellow card in the previous match. The game ended in a 1-1 draw, but that didn't stop Mexico from qualifying at the top of its group (in the region).
During the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup the Mexican national was placed in Group C, where they faced the national teams of Gambia, Portugal, and New Zealand, in that order. On July 2, 2007, Giovanni Dos Santos and the rest of the Mexican National Team faced off against Gambia and won with a final score board of 3-0, with Giovanni opening the count at the thirteen minute mark of the second half with a superb kick from the outer box, with an elevated foot, making the ball in on the left side of the goal box. He then went to play against Portugal, where his team won 2-1, with Giovanni scoring the opening goal once more this time product of a penalty kick, against New Zealand he sat on the bench the whole game as a strategic decision from his coach to rest him. During the last-sixteen round Mexico played against Congo, Dos Santos returned as a starter and again opened the score with a goal product of a penalty kick, on a match that would end with the Mexicans winning with a final score of 3-0. For the quarterfinals Mexico would be eliminated against Argentina 1-0 where the presence of Dos Santos was in a way not as noticable as in past games.
Players Zinedine Zidane, have expressed their respects towards the young Dos Santos. Particular is the case of Ronaldinho, since the press has always compared Giovanni with him, both players have publicly recognized that each admires the other and expressed their wish to play together in the near future. Ronaldinho has said that he admires the young Dos Santos and expects great things of him. Meanwhile Dos Santos is not shy to accept that his biggest idol in football, besides his own father, is Ronaldinho.

Barcelona
11 May 1989
Source: Wikipedia