Moise Kean has some very specific career objectives. “I dream of scoring in a Champions League final,” he once told the newspaper Tuttosport. “With my head. Against a team from Spain.”
A move from Juventus to Everton would seem to take him further away from such ambitions. The Bianconeri have played in two of the past five Champions League finals, and signed Cristiano Ronaldo last summer precisely to help them conquer Europe. Everton have not played in the continent’s top club competition in almost half a century, barring a qualifying-round defeat by Villarreal in 2005.
Sometimes, though, the most important thing is just to be out on the pitch. Kean played in 17 matches for Juventus last season, yet he started only six. Too few for a 19-year-old who contemplated quitting football altogether in his younger years, out of frustration at having his minutes restricted. His mother’s relentless work schedule meant he was always getting dropped off at his local team’s training sessions midway through.
Both have been rewarded for persisting. Kean’s mother, Isabelle, is Ivorian but Moise was born in Vercelli, in northern Italy, before being spotted by scouts from Torino and brought into their academy system. Juventus lured him away from their city rivals at 14. On the day he signed his first professional contract, Kean called his mum and told her she could stop working and come to live with him.
It was apparent already that he had a special talent. Kean was averaging close to a goal per game for Juventus’ youth sides even when placed with kids three or four years older. He became the youngest player to appear for their first team when he made his debut at 16, and soon after that became the first person born in the 2000s to appear in a Champions League match.
Itching for more opportunities, he went on loan to Verona for 2017-18. A tally of four goals in 20 appearances looks modest but his season was disrupted by injury, and that was still enough to make him joint-top scorer in a team relegated by early May.
It was Ronaldo’s signing that persuaded him to return to Juventus last summer, instead of seeking another move away. “During training, I try to watch everything he does, from the way he carries himself on the pitch to his desire to play, to train, and to always be ready,” Kean would explain. “You should not underestimate the benefits of training with a great champion. I observe and then I try to apply what I’ve learned.”
Finally, this spring, Kean got his chance to put those lessons into action. He scored the goal that knocked Bologna out of the Coppa Italia, then marked his first Serie A start for Juventus with a double against Udinese. Kean might have had a hat-trick, but the penalty he won was given to Emre Can.
Ronaldo, watching from the dugout, was seen imitating Kean’s stepovers after the second goal. When the Portuguese got injured on international duty later that month, Kean scored in all three games that Ronaldo missed to keep Juventus on track for their eighth consecutive Serie A title.
Kean’s physical gifts are obvious. He stands close to 6ft, with a muscular build and acceleration that few defenders can live with. Yet different traits mark him apart: the courage to take on an opponent when travelling at top speed and the quickness of thought to understand when he has them off-balance and know which shoulder to attack. He is a solid finisher and can play through the middle but looks most at home cutting in from the flank.
There is a mischievousness in his approach which can stray into occasional over-indulgence, but it is married to a robust work ethic. The two threads come together in stories he tells of his childhood, when he would steal footballs from his local priest when that was the only way to get a game.
Kean has been compared to Mario Balotelli, and it is true that as youth player at Juventus he once celebrated a goal by revealing a T-shirt with the familiar message ‘Why Always Me’. The pair share a friendship, as well as some unpleasant life experiences. Each has been racially abused in their home country for the colour of their skin.
Yet they are different personalities with markedly different playing styles. Kean has made mistakes of his own – he was sent home from an Italy Under-19 training camp in 2017 with Gianluca Scamacca amid reports of a practical joke gone awry, and he was left out of Italy’s Under-21 side for their European Championship game against Belgium this summer after showing up late for a team meeting – but so have a great many other young players.
And Kean has excelled while representing his country as well. He scored three goals across the semi-final and final as Italy fell just short in the Under-19 Euros last year. Kean marked his first start for the senior national team, this March, by becoming the youngest player to score for them in a competitive game – helping to deliver a 2-0 win over Finland – then followed up with a further goal against Liechtenstein three days later.
“Yes we Kean,” screamed the front pages of Italy’s sporting newspapers on the morning after the win over Finland – echoing Barack Obama’s famous slogan. It is too soon to know whether a teenager with 17 top-flight starts can live up to the high hopes being piled upon him. Yet it is easy to see why his presence would breed enthusiasm for Everton’s Premier League campaign.
The Guardian Sport
