24/6/2025–|Last update: 16:54 (Mecca time)
Since Giovanni Doss Santos made his first steps in football fields seemed to have been as if the world football was on a date with a new legend.
With glamorous touches and rare spherical imagination, some called “Messi Mexico”, while others saw his face from the magic of Maradona, and between expectations and delusions, Dos Santos lived a volatile march that is completely similar to his paths on the field, charming dodging, then an unexpected fall.
Giovanni was born in Monterrey in 1989, and he grew up at the hands of his father, Zizinho, the former Brazilian player who left his mark in Mexican stadiums, and since his childhood he had a unique mixture of Latin skill and Mexican determination that made him quickly stand out as a unique talent worthy of follow -up.
Barcelona’s dream and golden start
At the age of 13 years, Doss Santos entered the “La Masia” gate, the stars factory in Barcelona, and there is the sharing of the dressing rooms and the playgrounds with names such as Lionel Messi, Pique and Boyan, and in 2007 he climbed to the first team, and soon glimpsed from his genius, most notably the hat-trick in the last round of the 2007-2008 League season.
But despite the promising start, Giovanni faced a familiar dilemma: a talent that is struggling with a ruthless reality in a club filled with stars and strict plans, he did not find a permanent place in the formation, so the journey began towards the unknown.
In 2008, Dos Santos’s transfer to Tottenham was an attempt to renew the path, but the English Premier League was not the fertile land that he wished, injuries, vigil, and the repetition of disciplinary problems are all factors that contributed to obstructing its development and despite the flashes of the loan stations, the confidence in which the world saw began to erode.
The return to the League with Mallorca and then Villarreal were a new birth for Giovanni, in Villarreal in particular, looked more mature and more focused, and perhaps happier, he rediscovered himself, and contributed with charming goals and passes, before returning again due to injuries and instability.
His real brilliance in the Mexico shirt
On the international level, the Giovanni star shined with the colors of “L -Tre” since his victory in the U -17 World Cup 2005, and even his historical goal against the United States in the 2011 Golden Cup final proved to be a player of big events.
Doss Santos scored 19 goals in about 100 international matches, and participated 3 times in the World Cup, achievements that confirm his value even if he did not translate his career at the club level.
In 2015, Giovanni Doss Santos entered a new adventure with Los Angeles Galaxy.
The start was strong and the numbers were relatively good, with a huge media uproar, but as in the past, the levels gradually declined and the incentive lost slowly by 2019, and his exit from the team was an official announcement that his career declined.
Return to Mexico from the American club’s gate was not epic as some expected, and the dreams of restoring faded quickly, and the name of Giovanni disappeared from the headlines, and with the end of his contract in 2021 he remained free without a club, bewildered between the glory that he knew young and the reality that was not great.
Giovanni Doss Santos did not achieve what he had ever, but he left us unforgettable moments and a legendary goal against the United States and his silk stages in Villarreal and his impressive youth shows, and at a time when football has become numbers and titles that Giovanni remains a witness that beauty alone may be sufficient to make legend even for a few moments.