Barcelona’s latest rising star walks like Ronaldinho, plays like Ronaldinho and shares the same outrageous ball skills. No wonder the Brazilian names young ‘Gio’ as his successor

AGE 17
CLUB Barcelona
POSITION Midfielder
LOWDOWN Moved to the Nou Camp at 13 then shone at the U17 World Cup

Three years after staging a 1986 World Cup game where eventual Golden Boot winner Gary Lineker scored a hat-trick against Poland, the wealthy Mexican city of Monterrey welcomed Giovanni dos Santos Ramirez into the world. Football was in his blood; the only reason he was born in Mexico was because his Brazil father Gerardo – or ‘Zizinho’ – was a playmaker at CF Monterrey.

Now 17, Dos Santos is the most talked about young footballer in Barcelona since Lionel Messi. Like the precocious Argentinian, he moved to the club at the age of 13, along with his family, after being spotted playing in a youth tournament in France for San Paulo of Monterrey. Not only was he the tournament’s top goalscorer, but the variety of goals and range of his passing astounded scouts.

Dos Santos – and his younger brother Jonathan – moved quietly through the system at Barça. And then he starred in the FIFA Under-17 World Championships in 2005, leading Mexico to a 3-0 final victory over Brazil in Peru. ‘Gio’ – as he likes to be called – was brilliant, runner-up for the competition’s Ballon D’Or and heralded by the Spanish media as the next star to rise from the fertile Barcelona youth ranks that have nurtured Cesc Fabregas and Messi.

Ironically, that success created a problem for Barça. Unlike English clubs, they can only legally offer a player a professional contract when he is 18. Stung when Arsenal snared Fabregas and Manchester United grabbed Gerard Pique, the Catalan giants were determined to prevent the same thing happening with Dos Santos. The club therefore set up a trust fund for him and his brother which covers educational fees and the rent of the family apartment until he is 20. It didn’t stop Chelsea and Manchester United, plus Mexican sides Club America and Monterrey, making doomed overtures.

Last season the English champions went directly to the player’s father, who acts as his agent, and told him that they had been following Gio’s progress and were prepared to offer him a professional contract. “We said no because nothing was going to destabilise my son at a point when he was deeply involved in trying to win the World [Youth] Cup for Mexico,” explains father Gerardo. His mother, Liliana, adds: “We have received many offers, but we have an allegiance to Barcelona because we think they are best for our sons.”

Dos Santos’s explosion into the Catalan public consciousness didn’t come until the summer of 2006 when he was promoted to Barça’s first team for an exhaustive pre-season schedule which included games in Mexico and the United States. He was a revelation, scoring a wonder goal when he skipped past two defenders on the right of the box before lashing the ball into the far corner of the net from an acute angle.

Comparisons with Ronaldinho were immediate and inevitable. They walk the same walk, possess a similar burst of pace and the same wonderful ability to elude challenges. “These comparisons will always exist in football,” explains Dos Santos. “I am grateful to be compared to Ronaldinho, but I am a player who has barely begun his career and has everything to prove. I am learning a lot, but I am aware that the most important thing is the team and not the individual. They all tell me to take things calmly and that I should do what I can. This is advice I will always remember.”

Dos Santos may not thank him for it, but asked by FourFourTwo to pick the next Ronaldinho from all the players in the world, the real thing chooses his teenage club-mate. “He can give the team a new dimension,” the world’s best player insists. “When he trained with us, he felt comfortable and he has a lot of quality. I’d like him to play with us.”



Dos Santos certainly has his sights set on the first team. “Lionel Messi has opened the door. He has shown that players from the youth teams at Barça can play for the first team if they are good enough. Lots of us want to follow him.” At the age of 20, Messi finds himself cast as an unwitting father figure, apparently dispensing advice to the young Mexican.

This season has not all gone to plan for Dos Santos, however. While the Barca B team for which Messi played pushed for promotion to Spain’s second division, the current team has won just one of their first 12 games after losing three experienced players in the summer. Injury has prevented Dos Santos featuring in that miserable run and, while Barça have registered him in their squad to defend the Champions League, regulations block his way to the first team for league games. Spanish clubs are only allowed to play three non-EU players (though many of their ‘foreign’ stars have EU passports). At present, Barça’s overseas representatives are Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o and Mexico captain Rafael Marquez, who is due to receive a Spanish passport in January. Having been in Spain for almost five years, Dos Santos has applied for a Spanish passport too. As soon as he or Marquez get their papers, Dos Santos can play.

Alex Garcia, his coach at Barcelona last season, is convinced he’ll be a success. “He is a normal, attentive boy in the changing room, someone who seems content with life. On the field he is explosive, like Lionel Messi. He has superb technique, accelerates quickly and has the ability to stop and change direction just as quickly to confuse opponents. It’s very hard to knock him off the ball because physically he is so strong. He is a goalscorer at the moment, but in time I think he will become more of a playmaker. I think he’ll play in the first team soon. A lot of things will depend on him making the first team, but he has the qualities to play alongside the best players at Barça.”

As for his international aspirations: “My son is already ready to play in the senior Mexico team,” says his father. “And even though I am Brazilian, I wouldn’t be opposed to him choosing to play for Mexico because of the great affection that everyone in my family has for Mexico.”

Get ready for a Mexican wave.