Hey everybody, hop on the hype train, there’s plenty of room. Gianluca Busio is going to be the American Pelé and nothing is going to stop him. He definitely won’t flame out and play for a dozen clubs in a disappointing, prematurely ending career. He won’t, because we’ll force him, Robot Chicken style, to watch Freddy Adu highlights one after another.
Gianluca Busio became the second-youngest Major League Soccer signing in league history when Sporting Kansas City signed the 15-year-old on Friday. The forward has already impressed with the Sporting KC U-18s and the U.S. U-15s and appears to have a bright future ahead of him — as long as he doesn’t follow in the footsteps of Adu.
Only Adu, 14, was younger when he signed his first MLS contract. Busio is 15 years and three months old and scored for the Sporting KC U-18s in June. He scored five goals for the U.S. U-15s in a second-place finish at the CONCACAF championships and three more goals to lead the U.S. to a first-place finish at the Torneo Delle Nazioni in Italy in May.
Kansas City has a history of signing young players. In 2013, Sporting signed Erik Palmer-Brown, then 16, who made his first-team debut nine months later. Busio will probably need a little more time to mature (and grow), but someone’s gotta replace Dom Dwyer.
Busio, a Greensboro, North Carolina, native, is Kansas City’s fifth Homegrown signing, but probably the first to do stuff like this:
#RapidReplay GOAL USA, Gianluca BUSIO No. 11, min 36 |@ussoccer_ynt vs. @Fepafut #CU15B pic.twitter.com/yFh4Ahptqd
— Audible Sports (@AudibleSports) August 17, 2017
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