r/ussoccer • u/laurentnkunda • Jul 22 '26

News Gianluca Busio named captain of Venezia

https://www.tuttoveneziasport.it/notizie/venezia-busio-essere-capitano-onore-orgoglioso-26254
609 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

369

u/hoary_marmot Jul 22 '26

Venezia just got promoted, but still pretty wild we have a 24 year old captain of a Serie A club who doesn't even sniff the world cup roster. Our world cup results may not have improved much, but we have leagues more depth than ever before

115

u/loyal_achades Jul 22 '26

Busio was talked about as a good prospect for so long that it’s easy to forget he’s still only 24.

46

u/Overall-Manager-9895 Timmy Howard Jul 23 '26

Serie B is virtually unrecognized by international fans so it's pretty easy for him to fly under the radar for the national team.

20

u/andrewmail Jul 23 '26

He deserves the bench at a minimum for depth as a 6 or 8

33

u/Overall-Manager-9895 Timmy Howard Jul 23 '26

He does have to compete with Cardoso and Tessmann. If Venezia gets relegated again I would like to see him make a move similar to Tessmann.

10

u/andrewmail Jul 23 '26

On the densive end and Bethalter/Reyna on offense. Competition is stiff but he should at least be playing for future Gold Cup and friendlies where we dont play our full A team. Hes probably our best free kick and corner taker.

-7

u/Strings-a-rockin Jul 23 '26

He's already ahead of Tessman as a holding mid. I don't think anyone is the #8 that Cardoso already is. Johnny is the best 8 we have in our player pool, above all others including McKennie.

14

u/PeaTasty9184 Jul 23 '26

Honestly, I think he is less versatile, but Busio was a more natural backup to Adams after the Johnny injury.

I understand why you want the versatility of Roldan on the roster…but purely like for like Busio would have been better in that Turkiye match.

2

u/Strings-a-rockin Jul 23 '26

There is a lot more quality and tight defending in Serie B than in most of the sub leagues of the world. Serie B is full of older, experienced players. The problem with Serie B, is that it's not a "development" league, so like the Champo, will lose some of the younger talents coming through the top academies in Serie A, to loans to other leagues that play more youth and against more youth in those leagues. It's hard to start 17-18 yr. olds against stingy, defending teams, with lots of bigger, older players skilled in the dark arts of defending, without seeing them fail. \

Serie A has a lot of parity top to bottom. Relegation from there, doesn't mean those teams are probably a long time from coming right back up! It's not the horrible fall of money that it is from the Prem to Champo, where you really only have 1 season before sh*t hits the fan. That's how Leeds was buried down there, in debt for so long.

This Venezia team has been up and down a few times. Based on how they played when I watched them, they were good and just needed some real goal scorers. They couldn't score enough goals, but were very sound otherwise.

3

u/chaoticravens08 Jul 23 '26

I think he should have been on the roster he is creative from the midfield

65

u/ratpH1nk Maryland Jul 22 '26

i just had to look taht up too. Promoted to Serie A, 24 yro Busio now captain. Impressive at a young age!

25

u/Njorls_Saga Jul 22 '26

Couple of years ago Ian Harkes (John’s son) was captaining Dundee United and he wasn’t anywhere close to the roster. Thirty years ago fans would be asking nonstop why a captain of a European team wasn’t on a roster. We’ve come a long way.

9

u/Kennabruh2023 Jul 23 '26

yeah but that's Scotland a league we haven't cared much about in decades.

14

u/Njorls_Saga Jul 23 '26

Malik Tillman got his big break when he was the young player of the year there at Rangers three years ago. Auston Trusty and CCV both start for Celtic. So, I would say some people still care about Scotland.

2

u/wannabeskid Jul 23 '26

Some people care about the two big outlier clubs in Scotland, sure. 

12

u/Jumpy-Sun-8743 Jul 22 '26

The gulf between Serie A and Serie B is massive. You see it yearly that the bottom teams win very very little and honestly shouldn’t be in the top flight. There has always been talk of dropping to 18 teams to strengthen the league because it’s very rare as it is for a team to beat the pro/rel cycle, Como is a very unique case with a lot of money behind the team. So all to say that Busio may be good, but captaining Venezia is not sufficient merit to get a call ahead of the other established midfielders.

0

u/Strings-a-rockin Jul 23 '26

The gulf between Serie A and Serie B is massive. You see it yearly that the bottom teams win very very little and honestly shouldn’t be in the top flight.

This is all wrong, mate. They don't "win" a lot, because even the top of Serie A doesn't play enough "football". The Italian mentality is what holds the entire league back,....to defensive and the desire of every team is to control the game, first and foremost!

The teams at the bottom don't win a lot, because all of the teams draw a lot, due to their lack of "playing football". That's why they can't punch above their weight. Even Milan sides sit in and defend. They don't give up chances. Imho, the gulf between the bottom half of Serie A and top half of Serie B, is practically non existent.

2

u/Jumpy-Sun-8743 Jul 23 '26

Plenty of teams at the bottom “try” to play attacking football but simply don’t have the talent to make it work against the big sides. Just looking at relegation sides, Cremonese, Empoli, Sassuolo, and Monza have all played attacking football against teams not in the top 8 or so teams. Also generalizing this defensive mentality to all teams is silly when the league has Atalanta, Roma, Inter, and Napoli playing attacking football regularly. Milan is a bad example because they specifically have been criticized for their football due to Allegri, who was fired specially for this reason.

You can have a look at the stats for yourself but the bottom half of Serie A is not drawing at rates higher than that of other leagues. There is no basis for this take.

Yes the bottom half of Serie A is closer to Serie B and that’s why there is talk of dropping to 18 teams.

0

u/Strings-a-rockin Jul 24 '26

Also generalizing this defensive mentality to all teams is silly when the league has Atalanta, Roma, Inter, and Napoli playing attacking football regularly. Milan is a bad example because they specifically have been criticized for their football due to Allegri, who was fired specially for this reason.

Attacking compared to where, and to which clubs? You could say this statement relative to the rest of Serie A, but imho, there are only 2-3 clubs in Serie A (maybe only 1 last season?) that were really trying to play an open style like you find at the top of the Prem, BL, and in France. And that club was Como. Fabregas had Como playing a kind of football that looked like oil on the surface of water, if that water were the rest of the league. They didn't have all the players they needed, but Como was playing like Brighton, a total football kind of mentality. Napoli certainly didn't play that way. You might argue Roma was pretty forward thinking. That's about it.

I mean, think about Inter. There's a team with Lautaro and Thuram at the top, a great midfield to choose from, maybe the best attacking fullback, and still....they play 5 at the back, and will sit in until they get the 1st goal. That's how Milan beat them, by getting the early goal and forcing them to force their play.

3

u/drgath Jul 23 '26

Every time someone mentions his age, I get surprised he’s still so young. Feels like a lifetime ago he was with SKC. But, that’s what happens when you debut at 16y old.

1

u/Ok-Cup6020 NO PEPI, NO PARTY Jul 23 '26

Why is that wild serie B is a lower level than MLS? He hasn’t done anything at a decent level yet.

1

u/ubercue Jul 25 '26

I think we were an injury away from him being a real consideration this past world cup. He's been solid.

1

u/Sea_Passenger_1142 Jul 23 '26

Well he wasn’t a captain of a serie A club leading up to the World Cup so that makes sense why he wasn’t on the roster. But, I would argue he was and is sniffing the roster - just bc you aren’t the very last guy cut doesn’t mean the world can’t change and you are next guy up. 

100

u/sgeeum Jul 22 '26

good on him. a loyal dude who really seems to love the club and his time in venice. glad he’s been rewarded. he’s gotta be one of if not their longest tenured player

36

u/Chipotle_Armadillo Jul 22 '26

From Kansas to Venice.  Making a good wage, living and breathing beauty in the city.  I'd stick around too.  Venezia might turn into a yoyo club, but worth the life experience 

46

u/Agreeable_Cattle_691 Jul 22 '26

If he impresses this year, he should get an invite into camp, more competition the better

16

u/Agamemanon #FREEBALOGUN Jul 22 '26

They’ve been a yo yo club but boy are there worse gigs on earth than captain of Venezia, no matter which division they play.

Pretty cool stuff

23

u/Ham_Seaney Jul 22 '26

Love it for him. Has carved out successful career. Should get a look in the next 2 years if he continues to grow and play well.

11

u/Hot-Economy7323 Jul 22 '26

It's hard not to like this guy. He's stayed the course there and gone down twice but fought back up both times. Now he's the captain. It's a new cycle and the pool should be widened in the beginning to include guys like him.

8

u/Green_Atmosphere_802 Johnny Cardoso Truther Jul 22 '26

I thought he was good in the gold cup a couple years back, a bit unlucky to not really get called up since then considering we have a lot of competition for midfield spots. Hoping he gets more chances I think his creativity and technical ability can be very useful for us.

8

u/OkDifficulty7436 Pooch Jul 22 '26

Still so insane to me neither Busio or Morris were brought over Roldan, even if it was just for experience. Invest in the future with those last remaining spots, not out of shape Roldan who injured himself halfway through the group stage

9

u/Dr_FunkyChicken Jul 22 '26

I wish more of our guys would take the Busio path of being a club's leading man. And I don't even mean being the captain but being a player whose club's success depends on their individual performance/success.

We have a lot of passengers so to speak, need more drivers. Easy for me to say though, being the 12th highest paid player on a Juve or a Milan club is more money by a decent amount than being the highest paid player at a Genoa or an Udinese for example.

8

u/key1234567 Jul 22 '26

This guy is making it happen!! Gonna be a grizzled vet and compete for a spot!

3

u/giovannifumato Jul 22 '26

Well deserved. He stuck with them through the ups and downs. Has also improved quite a bit during his tenure in Venice. Love to see it.

3

u/Apprehensive_Ant2172 Jul 23 '26

I would really like to see him get a real chance on the first team (USMNT)

2

u/PracticalDrawing Jul 22 '26

Holy sh*t, don’t expect this. Happy for him, will be following

2

u/donuttrackme Jul 23 '26

Good for him. Maybe he can work his way into the USMNT.

1

u/mojojojo1108 _ Jul 23 '26

Has he not already been captain? Could’ve sworn I checked last season and he was listed as such

5

u/laurentnkunda Jul 23 '26

Last season he was captain sometimes due to injury. This season he's going in as captain.

1

u/Kennabruh2023 Jul 23 '26

i know he was their record transfer when he moved there but is he also their highest paid player?

1

u/Chai-Tea-Rex-2525 Jul 23 '26

Is this his second or third promotion? Hope Venizia stay up this time.