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Giovani dos Santos

Personal information
Full name	Giovani dos Santos Ramírez
Date of birth	11 May 1989 (1989-05-11) (age 20)
Place of birth	Monterrey, Mexico
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in)[1]
Playing position	Attacking midfielder
Club information
Current club	Galatasaray
Number	30
Youth career
2001	Monterrey
2002–2006	Barcelona
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2006–2007	Barcelona B	26	(6)
2007–2008	Barcelona	28	(3)
2008–	Tottenham Hotspur	7	(0)
2009	→ Ipswich Town (loan)	8	(4)
2010–	→ Galatasaray (loan)	6	(0)
National team‡
2005	Mexico U17	8	(2)
2007	Mexico U20	6	(5)
2007–	Mexico	22	(5)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 28 February 2010. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 10 September 2009

Giovani dos Santos Ramírez^[1] (born 11 May 1989) is a Mexican footballer who currently plays as an attacking midfielder for Turkish Süper Lig club Galatasaray ^[2] on-loan.

Dos Santos was a member of the Mexican National U-17 team that won the 2005 U-17 World Cup held in Peru. He was MVP of the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Club career

Giovani dos Santos, was born in Monterrey, Mexico. He is the son of a Brazilian footballer Gerardo dos Santos, better known as "Zizinho", who played for the Mexican football clubs Club América and Club Leon in the late 1980s. Dos Santos' mother, Liliana Ramírez, is Mexican. Dos Santos has two brothers and two half-brothers; the elder, Éder dos Santos, currently plays for Club América in the Primera División de Mexico as a defensive midfielder, and his younger brother, Jonathan dos Santos plays for Barcelona Atlètic in the Spanish Segunda División Band his other sister Muge is currently playing in Yesilyurt Spor Klubu.

Barcelona

Giovani in Barcelona

Dos Santos played for Barcelona's Juvenil A category where he helped his team to make a 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-rivals, Real Madrid. Dos Santos once again played a significant role during the tournament and helped the team win the national title of the Juvenil A category.

In 2006, dos Santos was invited on the pre-season tour of Barcelona's senior squad; during a friendly match on 29 July 2006, he scored in his senior team debut game against Danish club AGF Aarhus.^[3]

During the summer of 2007, dos Santos was once again invited to join Barça's senior squad on their pre-season tour. On 29 August 2007, dos Santos received dual nationality and was included in the official first team squad. He made his competitive and league debut on 2 September 2007 (at 18 years and 114 days) during a 3–1 home win against Athletic Bilbao, coming on for Thierry Henry in the 62nd minute.^[4]

Dos Santos made his Champions League debut on 19 September 2007 during a 3–0 home win against Olympique Lyonnais. He came on as a substitute for Xavi in the 79th minute.^[5]

On 17 May 2008, dos Santos scored a hat trick against Real Murcia, with a final score of 5–3, granting a victory to Barça on the team's last game of the 2007–08 season. It was also the last game dos Santos played before joining Tottenham Hotspur.

Tottenham Hotspur

On 10 June 2008, dos Santos passed a medical and agreed terms to complete his move to Tottenham Hotspur from FC Barcelona. The transfer fee was initially £4.7 million, with the potential to rise to £8.6 million depending on appearances. The deal also includes a sell-on clause of 20% within dos Santos' first two years at Spurs, and 10% thereafter. ^[6]

The young Mexican, under high expectations, was on target twice as Tottenham beat local Spanish side Tavernes in an 8-0 thumping on their 2008-09 pre-season tour. These were his first goals for Tottenham. Dos Santos played in Tottenham's other pre-season games being a factor in 5-1 wins over Leyton Orient and Norwich City. He also scored the second goal in the 3-0 win over Borussia Dortmund to help Spurs to make it two wins out of two and take home the Feyenoord Jubileum Tournament trophy. Since then, he has failed to impress at Tottenham, having scored his first and only competitive goal for Spurs in UEFA Cup competition on 26 February against Shakhtar Donetsk. His first game of the 2009/2010 season against Doncaster in the Carling Cup went well, with the player assisting a goal. However, he was substituted off due to an ankle injury early on in a game against Preston North End F.C. and has only managed to make a substitute appearance in a 1-0 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. since.

Ipswich Town

In March 2009, dos Santos signed on loan at Ipswich Town until the end of the season. ^[7] He made his debut on 14 March 2009, coming on as a substitute against Reading.^[8] He scored his first league goal and the equaliser in the following game against Burnley. He scored his second goal against Bristol City on Easter Monday, a 94th minute penalty to equaliser for Ipswich. He also claimed an assist and a goal from the penalty spot in Ipswich's 3-2 win over local rivals Norwich City a week later.^[9] During his time at Ipswich, Giovani became a fans' favourite and built up a good relationship with the club. Upon heading back to Tottenham, he stated that it was a "great experience" and that he "loved the fans" at Ipswich, as well as tipping the club to make a swift return to the Premier League.^[10]

Galatasaray

In January 2010 Giovani signed for Turkish giants Galatasaray on loan for the remainder of the 2009–10 season, with an option to purchase him at the end of that period.^[11] The move reunited Giovani with Frank Rijkaard, his former coach at Barcelona. He made his debut coming on as a 58th-minute substitute for Emre Çolak in a league game against Denizlispor on 31 January.

International career

U-17 World Championship

During the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship, dos Santos managed to assist half of the goals of the Mexican team during the tournament, a fact that, combined with his abilities, awarded him the Adidas Silver Ball as the second best player of the tournament, finishing behind only to Brazilian and Manchester United midfielder Anderson.

U-20 World Championship

In the U-20 World Cup Qualifiers, he scored twice; once against St. Kitts and Nevis in the 86th minute and the second against Jamaica in the 56th minute. He was forced to sit out the last game for precautionary reasons against Costa Rica as he had received a yellow card in the previous match. The game ended in a 1-1 draw, but Mexico still qualified, finishing top of the regional group.

During the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, Mexico was placed in Group C, where they were drawn against Gambia, Portugal, and New Zealand. On 2 July 2007, dos Santos and the rest of the Mexico team played against Gambia and won 3-0, with Giovani opening the scoring in the second half with a volley into the top left-hand corner from outside of the box. Dos Santos then played against Portugal, where Mexico won 2-1, scoring the opening goal from the penalty spot. As Mexico had already qualified from the group, he was rested for the game against New Zealand. In the 16, Mexico played against Congo and dos Santos returned to the starting line-up and yet again opened the scoring with a goal from the penalty spot in a match that Mexico won 3-0. In the quarter-finals, Mexico was eliminated by Argentina by an own goal on the second-half, which was the only goal of the game in a 1-0. Dos Santos was awarded the Adidas Bronze Ball, behind Argentines Sergio Agüero and Maxi Moralez.

Senior team

Giovani appeared for the first time for Mexico in a game against Guatemala. He scored his first two goals for Mexico on 24 June 2009 in a friendly match against Venezuela, a game in which he was also named Man of the Match. He scored his third goal for Mexico on 19 July in the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup quarter-final game against Haiti in the 42nd minute and also recorded two assists in the 4–0 victory. On 26 July 2009, he helped Mexico end a 10-year drought of victory against the United States on U.S. soil with a 5–0 victory that helped secure Mexico's fifth CONCACAF Gold Cup.^[12] He also received the MVP award for the best player in the tournament. On the 5 September 2009, Dos Santos contributed to all three goals in a 3–0 win over Costa Rica in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification stages. He scored the first goal from outside the penalty box with his preferred left foot and assisted in the following two goals.^[13].

All-time club performance

(correct as of 31 January 2010)

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	24 June 2009	Georgia Dome, Atlanta, United States	Venezuela	2–0	4–0	Friendly
2.	24 June 2009	Georgia Dome, Atlanta, United States	Venezuela	3–0	4–0	Friendly
3.	19 July 2009	Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, United States	Haiti	1–0	4–0	2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup
4.	26 July 2009	Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, United States	United States	2–0	5–0	2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup
5.	5 September 2009	Estadio Ricardo Saprissa, San José, Costa Rica	Costa Rica	1–0	3–0	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Honours

International

Mexico

• FIFA U-17 World Championship: 2005
• CONCACAF Gold Cup: 2009

Individual

• FIFA U-17 Silver Ball: 2005
• FIFA U-20 Bronze Ball: 2007
• CONCACAF Gold Cup Most Valuable Player: 2009

References

External links

• Official site
• Tottenham Hotspur profile
• Giovani dos Santos stats
• Giovani dos Santos FIFA competition record
• Footballdatabase.com Provides Profile and Statistics for Giovanni Dos Santos
• Giovani Dos Santos career stats at Soccerbase
• Ipswich Town profile

Mexico squad – 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup Winners (5th title) 1 Ochoa • 2 Magallón • 3 Rodríguez • 4 Dueñas • 5 Pinto • 6 Torrado • 7 Medina • 8 I. Castro • 9 Bravo • 10 Franco • 11 Vela • 12 Corona • 13 Barrera • 14 Sabah • 15 J. Castro • 16 Esquivel • 17 Giovani • 18 Cárdenas • 19 Noriega • 20 Martínez • 21 Valenzuela • 22 Juárez • Coach: Aguirre