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The Atomic Ant is heading to Toronto earlier than expected. And now it's as official as official gets.
In a lengthy thank-you-type post on the club's official website, Juventus has announced that Sebastian Giovinco has ended his time in Turin and is officially free to join the highly-ambitious Major League Soccer side. Giovinco, a former Juventus youth academy star who was tipped for greatness before he reached his 20s, agreed to terms with Toronto FC two weeks ago and was originally expected to go to MLS when his Juventus contract expired at the end of the Serie A season.
Instead, Giovinco is going to North America a couple of months early.
Giovinco has today left the club to begin his new adventure with FC Toronto. Good luck, Seba! http://t.co/Hvguc9bsBy pic.twitter.com/NTCtcvOQGT
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) February 2, 2015
Giovinco's Juventus career has never been the most routine or easy road to go down. He was expected to do big things despite being small in stature. But, outside of Antonio Conte's first season as Juventus manager, Giovinco never truly found the regular playing time with the bianconeri he so very much desired — both before and after his two-year stint and very good run of form with Parma.
Yet as the twists and turns came, Giovinco's status with the club became more and more uncertain. He was rumored to be one of the many in line for a new contract. That never came. Instead, rumors grew quickly that he was off to a new adventure in a new location, spurning the chance to play in Europe because there was a big-money contract awaiting him in Canada.
Giovinco's final appearance came in Juventus' 6-1 dismantling of Hellas Verona in the Round of 16 of the Coppa Italia.
We will always cherish those good times. Yep, good times, indeed.
But now, Giovinco will certainly be the center of a Toronto FC side that is hoping this foreign striker signing is better than the last one. He will be the centerpiece of the TFC attack as well as one of the highest paid players in all of MLS. And now that he's arriving at his new club weeks before the season starts rather than right in the middle of the year, the 28-year-old Giovinco will have time to adjust to his new league rather than learning on the fly.
