Editorial

Calcio Debate: Should Sebastian Giovinco And Davide Santon Leave Juventus And Inter Respectively In January?

Goal.com's Subhankar Mondal ponders whether two of the most talented youngsters of Italy should leave the country and play their club football abroad.....

Nov 20, 2009 12:00:00 PM

Sebastian Giovinco - Juventus (Getty Images)

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Sebastian Giovinco - Juventus (Getty Images)

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One is a 22-year-old trequartista versatile enough to play as a second striker while the other is a natural right back who can perform just as brilliantly on the left. One developed at the most successful Italian club ever while the other progressed at the strongest Italian side since the Calciopoli scandal. One is a hugely talented creative force said to be the heir apparent of his club's all-time record goalscorer while the other is suggested by some to be a natural heir to the world's best ever left back.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Sebastian Giovinco and Davide Santon, two of the most promising youngsters Italy has been impregnated with in recent years. While the former is said to be a long term solution to Juventus's creative department and has been baptised as the replacement for a certain Alessandro Del Piero, the latter is Inter's Paolo Maldini of the future. Meet them and let them welcome you to their world of uncertain future and restricted growth.

Giovinco and Santon might play in different clubs and in different areas of the pitch but their story this season has been pretty much the same old warming the bench and playing second or third fiddle. In a nation where 25-year-old Alberto Aquilani is still considered in some sections as young, the duo have been almost unsurprisingly rendered rotting on the sidelines even when there have been genuine reasons to call them on. Giovinco has started just six games in all competitions for Juve this season while Santon has started only three.

Which has led to calls for the duo to leave their respective clubs and even move abroad. Which, again, wouldn't be a bad move under the circumstances, especially for Giovinco.

How Long Before He Storms Out?

The pint-sized midfielder came under the limelight last season when he expressed his talent and quality. He has been lurking for a while now - he is 22 after all - but it was in 2008-09 that people outside Italy really came to know him. Giovinco came on against Chelsea in the second leg of their Champions League last 16 tie and had a mesmerising game when he glided past players.

At the time there were genuine beliefs that Juve would go on to make Giovinco a central thread of their plans for the 2009-10 campaign but the signing of Diego in the summer put flights to that notion. Del Piero already remains a vital clog in the club's structure both on the pitch and off it and Giovinco has been relegated to the third tier for the trequartista role, forcing him to lament, “If I were from Brazil or Argentina, maybe I’d have more chances to play. I regret being an Italian" and encouraging the rumour-mongers to finally use their degree in creative writing.

Santon's case is slightly different. He is four years younger than Giovinco and came onto the scene only last season. Yet he can make a case for himself. After all, having made his debut for Inter less than a year ago, he went onto play in 16 league games and finished the season on a high with many proclaiming him to become the best before long.

So understandably this season things were supposed to be different. Only, they are not. Santon has started only three games in Serie A and none in the Champions League and things got so bad that he stormed out of training after learning that he would not feature against Roma.

Traditionally in Italy talented young players have been shipped off to provincial or lower division clubs to gain experience and maturity and are recalled after they are past 20 and are then gradually incorporated into the first team of the bigger clubs. This policy has paid dividends over the years and some of the greatest players have progressed that way.

'If You Are Good Enough, You Are Not Old Enough'

Yet in this age this argument does fail to support the exclusion of Giovinco and Santon especially when there are other major clubs in Europe, mainly in the Premier League, who would gladly take them on board. Giovinco is talented but he has to prove himself as a matchwinner - to do which he has to play matches - but Santon's heroics and maturity last campaign has surely made him an attractive young player. Both players have already been linked with moves outside Italy to England and there are some who believe that both would do themselves a favour by leaving the peninsula.

Giovinco's West Ham United and Liverpool rumours have been rubbished and Santon too seems unlikely to move in January, yet perhaps both should make the leap. The former wouldn't start two games at a stretch until both Diego and Del Piero are injured while the latter is down in the pecking order. Giovinco would certainly get more games at West Ham and Santon could do himself good by joining Arsenal or Manchester United perhaps.

Then there's the small matter of playing for Italy at the World Cup finals. Giovinco is yet to be capped and that's primarily because coach Marcello Lippi has seen little of him. Santon made his international debut in June this year and looked to be heading to South Africa as a back-up but was dropped from the squad for last week's matches because of lack of playing time with Inter.

All of which indicates that both Giovinco and Santon should leave in January. But will they?

Subhankar Mondal, Goal.com

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