Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 8y

Sebastian Giovinco hoping to revive Italy career under Giampiero Ventura

Sebastian Giovinco has sent a reminder to new Italy coach Giampiero Ventura that he is keen to make his return to the national team after missing out on Euro 2016.

The Toronto FC striker, who was last week named Best MLS Player at the 2016 ESPY Awards, was overlooked by Ventura's predecessor Antonio Conte when he named his squad for Euro 2016, despite having picked the former Juventus forward throughout qualifying.

Ventura will officially become Italy's new coach on Tuesday and Giovinco is keen to receive a call from the former Torino coach at the end of next month when he names his first squad.

"There's no point looking back on what has happened in the past," Giovinco said of his exclusion from Euro 2016 in Gazzetta dello Sport. "I'm definitely putting forward my candidacy for a place in the national team in this new cycle. I'm ready.

"I know Ventura -- we've already met and we've spoken several times, but never about football in great depth."

Despite missing out on the European Championship, largely because he left Serie A to play in MLS, Giovinco does not regret the move and would recommend any of his Italy teammates to join him in North America.

"Football's growing here and it can keep on growing too," he said. "I can only reaffirm that it's been a beautiful experience which I would recommend to any Italian player if they were ever to have any doubts.

"I'm based in Toronto, but I'm always in the USA for games. It's a beautiful country which gives you so much."

Of winning the ESPY award, Giovinco expressed his gratitude at being recognised alongside some greats of modern sport.

"It's great to have won this, probably one of the biggest recognitions you can get in sport in the USA," Giovinco said. "This year, LeBron James, Ronaldo, [Novak] Djokovic and all of the greats of American sport were at the event in Los Angeles. It's a pity I couldn't make it, but we had a game at Columbus then we had to go to San Jose."

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