Mexican footballer Giovanni Dos Santos Ramirez, commonly known as just Giovanni Dos Santos was born on May 11th 1989 in Monterrey in Mexico. He is a midfielder and can also play in a striker’s role. He currently plays for La Liga giants Barcelona and has been called up to the Mexican national football squad. In 2005 Dos Santos was a member of the Mexican Under-17 team that won the Under-17 World Cup in Peru.
Giovanni Dos Santos is the son of former Brazilian footballer Gerardo dos Santos, also known as ‘Zizinho’, who was a well known football player from the 1980’s.
Dos Santos has a Mexican mother and two brothers and two step brothers. His eldest and youngest brothers also play for Barcelona, but aren’t in the first team like him.
Giovanni Dos Santos has been nurtured by his father from an early age to become such a good young footballer. His father opened up a school in Mexico and taught Dos Santos as well as other kids football. Giovanni was a key player for the school as they took part in a tournament in 2001 and won the under-12 category in a competition in the USA.
Giovanni Dos Santos’ father soon got his son a trial at a local Mexican team called Club Monterrey. He went straight into the squad as they saw him as an upcoming star.
Giovanni took part in the FIFA World Cup – Under-17 in 2005 with Mexico. He wore the number eight shirt and contributed massively to the amount of goals the team scored. He set up half the goals and he ended up winning the Adidas Silver Ball, which saw him named as second best player of the tournament running up to Anderson of the Brazilian team.
He then went back to Barcelona and helped the Juvenil A side win the regional title. This title meant they could take part in the Youth Copa Del Rey where they faced Real Madrid. Giovanni starred in this tournament and helped them win the national title of the Juvenil A.
Thanks to his great performances for the Juvenil A he was called up to go on a pre-season tour with the senior Barcelona squad in 2006. He played in a friendly match in July2006 against a Danish side, AGF Aarhus where he scored his first goal for Barcelona.
He helped Mexico reach the Under-20 World Cup in 2007 and starred in the tournament as he scored in a 3-0 win over Gambia in the group stages. He then scored a penalty against Portugal in their next group game as they won 2-1 and they progressed to the knock out stages. Mexico played Congo in the last sixteen and Dos Santos once again scored from the spot to open the scoring and Mexico went onto win 3-0. Mexico finally got knocked out by Argentina in the last eight but Giovanni won the Adidas Bronze award.
Giovanni Dos Santos once again went on pre-season tour with Barcelona in 2007 and got clearance to play competitive football for the team. He made his league debut for Barcelona in August 2007 against Atletico Bilbao, replacing Thierry Henry in the 62nd minute, with the match ending in a 3-1 win for Barcelona.
He first made an appearance in the Champions League on the 19th September 2007 when he replaced Xavi in the 3-0 win against Lyon.
