This is why Sebastian Giovinco will be Most Valuable Player in Major League Soccer. Not offense to guys like Kei Kamara and Benny Feilhaber, but the Toronto FC midfielder played two games, on both sides of the world, in a 24 hour span. And he capped it all off by scoring one of MLS’ goals of the season against Supporter Shield leading New York Red Bulls and earned Toronto FC their first MLS Cup playoff berth in their ninth season.
So on Tuesday, Giovinco was in Rome, Italy as Italy played Norway in their final Euro 2016 Qualifier. He entered in the 62nd minute and put in a solid performance in their 2-1 win. After this, Giovinco flew back from Rome to Toronto during the night/early morning. During this time, Giovinco was in contact with Toronto FC saying that he was willing to play Wednesday night against the Red Bulls. Ignoring any sort of jet lag on a transatlantic flight, Giovinco arrived in Toronto this afternoon, started on the bench and entered the game in the 71st minute to scored this beauty in the 79th.
Beating out four defenders as he scored an incredible individual goal was simply sublime. This is the type of player who will raise MLS’ profile and player pool. Sebastian Giovinco wasn’t a household name and he was an occasional starter with Juventus and Italy with a lot of potential. In the prime of his career, at 28 years old, Giovinco wanted to come to MLS and start fulfilling that potential. In less than a season and 22 goals later, Giovinco is back playing for the Italian National Team and has become an integral part of his club team, potentially even fielding offers to go back to Europe. For all the player moves MLS makes to sign and market around, Sebastian Giovinco is the total package and definitely a great example of a good player becoming great playing in MLS.
