Gianluca Cristiano Busio (born May 28, 2002) is an American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

and the United States national team.

Club career

Sporting Kansas City

Born in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...

, Busio joined the

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and t ...

academy in 2016 from North Carolina Fusion. On August 25, 2017, Busio signed a Homegrown Player contract with

, making him the youngest player to sign with a

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

club since

Freddy Adu Fredua Koranteng Adu (born June 2, 1989) is an American professional soccer player who played as an attacking midfielder. The last club he played for was Ettan Fotboll club Österlen FF. From before the time of his signing with D.C. United at th ...

joined

D.C. United D.C. United is a professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. that competes in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer, the top tier of American soccer. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Supp ...

in 2004. He made his professional debut on April 4, 2018, appearing for Sporting Kansas City's

United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a Association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues curren ...

affiliate side,

Swope Park Rangers Sporting Kansas City II is a MLS Next Pro club affiliated with Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer. For the 2022 season they will play their home games at Rock Chalk Park at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, as well as Sw ...

, starting in a 1–0 win over

Colorado Springs Switchbacks Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC is a professional soccer team based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 2014, the team is a member of the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. The franchise is owned by Martin E ...

. Busio went on to make his first Major League Soccer appearance for Sporting Kansas City on July 28 as a 77th-minute substitute in a 3–2 loss against

FC Dallas FC Dallas is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference in Major League Soccer (MLS). The franchise be ...

. One week later, on August 4, Busio made his first league start for Sporting Kansas City against the

Houston Dynamo Houston Dynamo FC (formerly officially, but still commonly, called the Houston Dynamo) is an American professional soccer club based in Houston. The Dynamo compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Establi ...

, which saw three red cards, eight yellow cards, and 28 total fouls. He provided his first career assist on a 74th-minute goal for teammate

Diego Rubio Diego Iván Rubio Köstner (born 15 May 1993) is a Chilean footballer who plays as a striker for Major League Soccer club Colorado Rapids. Club career Early career Rubio began his football career with Universidad Católica. However, when h ...

, which proved to be the winner in a 1–0 match. Busio was the third-youngest player to start a match in Major League Soccer history.

Venezia

On August 9, 2021, Busio moved to

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

side

for a club-record transfer fee. The fee was reported to be $6.5 million rising to $10.5 million in potential add-ons. He made his debut for the club on August 27 in a 0–3 defeat to

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

. He scored his first goal for the club, a last minute equalizer, in a 1–1 draw with

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

on October 1.

International career

In October 2019, he was named to the United States squad for the

2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 18th edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth association football, football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It was ...

in Brazil. On July 11, 2021, Busio made his senior national team debut, substituting for

Jackson Yueill Jackson William Yueill (; born March 19, 1997) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Major League Soccer club San Jose Earthquakes and the United States national team. Early life Jackson Yueill grew up in B ...

in the 62nd minute of the U.S.'s

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

group match against

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

Personal life

Busio is of Italian descent through his

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

-born father and holds Italian citizenship. His mother is

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

. He has an older sister, Ilaria, and an older brother, Matteo, who plays soccer at

UNC-Charlotte The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte or simply Charlotte) is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs through nine colle ...

and whom Gianluca lists as his biggest inspiration.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honors

United States *

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Individual *

CONCACAF U-17 Championship The CONCACAF U-17 Championship is an international association football event in the North America, Central America and the Caribbean region, and is the qualification tournament for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. Results In 2009 the tournament returned ...

Best XI:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

Gianluca Busio
at Sporting Kansas City * {{DEFAULTSORT:Busio, Gianluca 2002 births Living people Soccer players from North Carolina Sportspeople from Greensboro, North Carolina American soccer players United States men's international soccer players United States men's under-20 international soccer players United States men's youth international soccer players American people of Italian descent 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 21st-century African-American sportspeople African-American soccer players Association football midfielders CONCACAF Gold Cup-winning players Homegrown Players (MLS) Major League Soccer players Serie A players Sporting Kansas City players Sporting Kansas City II players USL Championship players Venezia F.C. players