Moise Kean, the path of a prodigy
From Turin to Paris, with a period spent at Everton, here's a look back the start of the career of Paris Saint-Germain's new forward, Moise Kean.
Born on 28 February 2000 in Vercelli, in northern Italy, young Moise Bioty Kean got his first taste of football with the clubs in the Piedmont region. He joined AC Asti in 2007, before signing for Torino FC a few months later. In 2010, the other club from Turin were made aware of the prodigy of Ivorian descent and he headed to Juventus just a few months after his tenth birthday.
With the Old Lady's youth teams, the forward racked up goals season after season and he attracted scouts from numerous clubs. He got his first outing for the first team on 19 November 2016 against Pescara (2-0), when he was just 16 years, 8 months and 21 days old, making him the youngest player to wear the Juventus shirt in Serie A and the first player to be born after 2000 to appear in one of the top five European leagues. He then made his first UEFA Champions League appearance three days later, against Sevilla FC (3-1).
On 27 May the following year, a young Moise scored his first goal in bianconero against Bologna (2-1) in Serie A, becoming the first player born in 2000 to find the back of the net in any of the top five European leagues. It also gave him the opportunity to celebrate his first Serie A title in the best way possible (4 matches in all competitions and one goal during the 2016-2017 season). The following summer, he was loaned to Hellas Verona for one season. In Veneto, Kean earned precious game time, playing on 20 occasions and picking up 4 goals.
Upon his return to Turin, he took part in 20 matches and scored 9 goals, and after playing in every age group for Italy (UEFA Euro U19 finalist in 2018), earned his first cap for the Squadra Azzurra against the USA (1-0), becoming the first player born in 2000 to wear the Italian shirt. On 23 March against Finland (2-0) in the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2020, he became the second youngest player to score with the Italian shirt on his back.
These performances attracted attention from Everton who signed the youngster in 2019, and continued to impress those watching him and was even shortlisted as one of the ten players for the Kopa Trophy, the award given to the best player under 21. The young forward who beat all the records in his youth played his first Premier League match on 10 August against Crystal Palace (0-0) and scored his first goal on 21 January against Newcastle (2-2).
In just over one season with the Toffees, he played in 39 matches across all competitions and scored four goals for the club. After Italy and then England, Kean now sets sail for France at the very end of the mercato. He will become the seventh Italian to wear the Paris Saint-Germain shirt after Marco Simone, Salvatore Sirigu, Thiago Motta, Gianluigi Buffon, and his new teammates Marco Verratti and Alessandro Florenzi. Benvenuto Moise!