TORONTO—Sebastian Giovinco appears to have a bright future as a politician after his soccer career is over.
While no doubt seething inside with bitter disappointment (and probably a touch of anger), the Toronto FC forward was diplomatic and said all the right things on Wednesday afternoon in talking to the media for the first time after learning he won’t play for Italy at Euro 2016.
Italian national team manager Antonio Conte on Monday announced his 30-man preliminary roster for the European Championship than runs from June 10 to July 10 in France. Giovinco did not make the list.
“Of course I was upset about it, but it’s useless to think too much about it. I need to keep going and I need to keep improving so that I can try to find my place back on the national team,” Giovinco said through an interpreter.
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In explaining his decision to omit Giovinco and Andrea Pirlo, who plays for New York City FC, Conte said playing in MLS worked against them.
“It’s clear that if you make such choices in football then at the end you might pay the consequences,” Conte stated.
Giovinco was again diplomatic when asked about Conte’s comments that called into question the standard of play in MLS.
“At the end of the day you need to see what the coach says, and how he interprets things when he chooses his team. It can be right, it can be wrong, but it’s really not my place to say. He knows what’s best and I think it’s a good decision if that’s what he thinks,” Giovinco stated.
He later added: “I’ve always said and I will continue to say [MLS] is constantly growing. Right now, I feel like it’s one of the most beautiful leagues.”
Giovinco explained he wasn’t given a specific reason as to why he wasn’t named to the Italian team, and admitted that he found out about his exclusion like everybody else.
“Maybe I didn’t do enough and I need to keep doing more to become better,” Giovinco offered.
It’s hard to imagine what more he could do. Last season he won the Most Valuable Player award by recording one of the best individual seasons in MLS history (highlighted by his 22 goals), and he has eight goals and five assists through the first 12 matches of the current campaign.
With 30 goals and 21 assists in 43 MLS matches, he became the fastest player in league history to have a hand in 50 goals (goals and assists), beating the previous record held by Robbie Keane who did it in 48 matches. Incredibly, he has scored or assisted on 51 of TFC’s 72 league goals since coming to MLS in 2015.
Giovinco’s absence from the Italian team, combined with Conte’s no-so veiled comments about the quality of MLS, set off a firestorm of negative reaction from TFC fans, Toronto coach Greg Vanney, his teammates, and league pundits and observers.
“I don’t think we need the Italian national team coach to give us any credit. I don’t feel like he’s that important to us,” TFC defender Drew Moor said earlier this week. “I’ve been in MLS for 12 years, and I feel like it’s a pretty good league. I watch a lot of [soccer] around the world; we don’t need a guy like him to tell us that our league is great or that it’s not great.”
Asked to comment about the strong backlash from Toronto fans over his omission, Giovinco simply said, “I don’t really know what to say.”
But the reality is that for all of the passionate outcry in Toronto and around MLS about Conte snubbing Giovinco, it hasn’t registered one bit back in Italy. The exclusions of Genoa’s Leonardo Pavoletti, Serie A’s highest scoring Italian this season with 14 goals, and Torino’s Andrea Belotti, who netted 11 goals on the campaign, have lead to a lot of head-scratching and second-guessing of Conte. But Giovinco’s absence? Italian fans and reporters have hardly taken notice, if at all.
It’s also important to remember that Giovinco has played very little for Italy under Conte. He made one start against Albania in a friendly in 2014, and he came on as a second-half substitute in two Euro qualifying matches when he was still a Juventus player. He also came off the bench in a pair of Euro qualifiers last year, his only outings for Italy while a member of TFC.
Giovinco, 29, has one goal and 23 caps for Italy, with his last appearances for his country coming in the Euro qualifiers against Azerbaijan and Norway in October. The game against Norway was in Rome—he flew back to Toronto after the match and played for TFC the very next night, scoring an incredible goal that helped the Reds win and clinch their first ever playoff berth.
“It’s interesting. [Giovinco] obviously played some games last year [for Italy] and did well. You’ll see what happens this summer if it was the correct decision. Obviously, we feel for Sebastian. We wanted him to go. … I don’t think playing in MLS in any way takes away from the player that he is,” TFC midfielder Will Johnson said earlier this week.
Conte will leave his post as Italian manager after this summer’s European Championship to take charge of Premier League club Chelsea. Conte’s replacement hasn’t been appointed, but Giovinco said he will continue to make himself available for national team duty regardless of who is named the new manager.
He also downplayed suggestions that he might have to leave MLS in order to have another chance at playing for Italy.
“As long as I continue to have fun I’m going to keep playing in the league,” Giovinco stated.
Toronto FC returns to action on Saturday with a road game vs. the New York Red Bulls.
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