Sporting KC: Gianluca Busio Should Get More Playing Time in 2019

Sporting Kansas City’s 16-year-old forward Gianluca Busio wildly exceeded all expectations set for him in the 2018 season and is likely set to make an even more impressive campaign in 2019.

Gianluca Busio, homegrown but originally from Greensboro, North Carolina, became the second-youngest player to sign an MLS contract when he signed with Sporting KC at 15 years old in August 2017. The teenager made his debut with the club in a 2-0 U.S. Open Cup win over Real Salt Lake on June 6th of 2018, making him the youngest player to ever feature in a match for SKC.

Shortly after his Open Cup feature was his MLS debut against FC Dallas on July 28, where the young player showed maturity beyond his years, making a notable difference in a tough match.

Busio would quickly outplay his impressive season debut during his first start and first full 90-minute MLS appearance in a 1-0 victory against the Houston Dynamo on August 4th. He added the game-winning assist to become the second-youngest MLS player to record an assist, as well as becoming the third-youngest player to start a match in MLS history.

He excelled in his first start in the middle of a losing streak for Sporting; he used his energy, technical ability and consistency to keep his cool throughout a bruiser of a match and deliver the game-winning assist, as well as pull the club out of its slump.

Just two and a half months later, he used the same strengths to become the second-youngest player in the history of the league to score a goal, coming off the bench to score a last-minute goal in a 4-1 win against the Vancouver Whitecaps on October 17th.

Over the course of the 2018 season, Busio appeared in seven games to play a total of 153 MLS minutes. In those minutes, he notched an assist and a goal. Outside of the one start, he was mostly used as a late-game substitute as a part of Vermes’s thoughtful-as-always developmental methods.

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Vermes told Tim Nash of News & Record in Greensboro that he didn’t want to throw the young player in matches haphazardly; the team manager chose the right times with the right amounts of pressure in order to give Busio appropriately-amounted levels of challenge in his first MLS experiences.

"“Every game he plays is a challenge,” Vermes told Nash. “He’s playing against men. I always want to be cognizant of how I am bringing him along. We have to give him experience, but they have to be meaningful experiences."

Busio responded to the challenges well, as he provided an offensive spark off the bench and didn’t show signs of hot-headedness, inconsistency or of being overwhelmed as one may expect a teenager to.

Though Sporting spent the 2018 season barreling headfirst through a deep playoff campaign, the club still looked to the contributions of the teenager in multiple high-pressure games.

The young forward has handled his gradual introduction into the MLS environment excellently. His eagerness to listen and grow as well as his maturity has made him well-liked across the club, as Vermes shared with Sam Stejskal from MLSSoccer.com.

"“He has the utmost respect of his teammates, and a lot of those guys have been around for a long time,” said Vermes. “It’s amazing. A lot of the guys spend time with him because they know that he listens and he tries to absorb as much as he possibly can, but at the same time he goes out and he has the confidence to try to do those things."

Busio offered his own perspective on his fit with the team in the same News & Record article referenced earlier—

"“I’m a young guy, so I get a bit more crap than usual. But it’s all to make me a better player,” he said. “When they tell me something, I’m going to listen. They know what they did wrong and they know what I’m doing wrong. I’m going to listen to them even if it is something I don’t want to hear. I know they can help me.”"

It is impressive how the North Carolina native has been playing so far; it is especially impressive when considering that the original plan was for him to just play with the Swope Park Rangers in 2018, but was pulled up sooner than expected due to first team injuries and his own going above and beyond the expectations initially set for him.

Vermes has often publicly disclosed that 2018 was originally supposed to be just a building year for SKC, but players such as Busio outpaced their expectations, accelerating the team development and allowing them to make a run toward the MLS Cup.

Now that Busio has gotten his chance to settle in and acclimate to the expectations within professional soccer, he’s ready for a bigger role on the squad in 2019.

"“I thought last year was a good year just to get my feet wet, to get used to the atmosphere, the professional environment and everything,” Busio shared with Daniel Sperry from MLSsoccer.com. “But now, this year, since I have it under my feet, I can have hopefully a bigger year.”"

Busio has lofty goals set for himself, including playing in the 2022 World Cup and potentially following fellow young MLS homegrown players like Tyler Adams (New York Red Bulls) and Alphonso Davies (Vancouver Whitecaps) overseas into a European club someday.

These goals are certainly realistic for a young player of his caliber but, of course, Busio is only sixteen and still needs a lot of development. He is younger and smaller than most MLS players, and needs to learn how to keep up if he is to consistently play full matches with the squad.

He has reportedly been learning to overcome these deficits in his training with SKC and US Soccer, developing his footwork and soccer IQ.

"“Playing with guys that are a lot older and physically bigger and stronger than you, you’ve got to try to keep up with them with your foot skills and moving the ball and all that,” he said to Stejskal from MLSSoccer.com. “That’s part of my game that I don’t feel behind on. Physically, they’ll have the advantage on me, but if I’m better with my feet and I’m quicker, then it’s not going to make a difference. I want to make sure I improve on making sure every touch is clean, every pass is to the correct foot, everything like that. That’s part of my game where I can clearly excel and be better and I don’t have to worry about being the biggest or strongest.”"

It seems that all the training has been paying off. The second-year player has been noted to be playing well this preseason, and Vermes has publicly applauded his smarts, technical skills, and confidence to MLSSoccer.com.