Gianluca Busio is about to officially join Venezia coming from Sporting Kansas City. At the tender age of 19, Busio has 61 senior appearances for Sporting KC thus far, and became the third youngest player to start a match in Major League Soccer when he made his debut at 16 years and 68 days.
Busio is a creative type of midfielder who likes to open up defenses with his passing ability, whether it’s a through ball to the runner making the runs in behind the defense or a long ball from deep. He has great awareness for his age as well as creativity that allows him to be effective in the final third. While he may not rack of the stat sheet with his assists or goals, his contribution is still felt through his hockey assist.
He creates plays for others that allow them to score or provide assists to other teammates and thus, Busio’s stats might not be as high as his talent might suggest. But don’t be fooled by just stats as his presence is felt and valuable for this KC team. He still has contributed to 2 goals and 3 assists to his name in just 13 appearances this season.
Busio has improved his passing ability immensely increasing his accuracy each year he has been in the league – even more so from 85.3% last season to 89.3% this year. Even with fewer games played from 19 last year to 13 this campaign, he still has attempted more passes (662 vs 747) and completed more of them (565 vs 667). This just goes to show the importance of Busio’s role in the team and how dynamic he is for them.
While he has excelled in the middle of the pitch contributing to the offensive side of the ball, he has done his part also helping in the defensive side as well. He has great awareness to be in the right position and trackback to help the defense when needed.
While his size might not reflect his true strength, he has a pretty good ability to tackle and intercept passes with his awareness and positioning.
The player that most resembles Busio might be Thiago Alcantara of Liverpool. While Busio might not have the creative flair like Thiago, they both possess that pass-first mentality and shoot when needed. Their defensive contribution is similar in that both players like to go in for challenges and tackle and have a great work rate to help the team. They both excel in trying to break up defenses and may not show up on the stat sheet, but their contributions are felt.
Playing for Venezia in Serie A will be a great opportunity for Gianluca Busio to test his talent at the next level. Serie A is pretty open, but the defending is world-class, so it’ll be interesting to see how he adapts his play style in a new league.
Busio has all of the ability to be great, potentially even better than his fellow countryman teammate Weston Mckennie and could be the future of the US men’s national team midfield.
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