Windsor soccer sensation inks Premier League deal
None of his Grade 10 classmates at Holy Names high school are going to be able to top Gianni Ferri’s tale of what he did this summer.
While most of his peers prepare for summer jobs, movies and trips to the beach, Ferri is about to become the first local soccer player to be signed by an English Premier League team.
The 16-year-old has signed a three-year pre-contract agreement with Swansea City that becomes a fully certified deal once he passes his physical early next month.
“I’m still trying to wrap my ahead around what I’m going to be doing,” Ferri said.
“I’ve watched the Premier League on TV and always dreamed of being part of that world. Now, I’ve been given the opportunity that might actually allow me to do that.”
After passing his physical, the five-foot-eleven, 167-pound Ferri will begin pre-season preparations with the Welsh club’s under-18 team. A training camp in Barcelona will be part of those preparations.
The season will begin in the second week of August.
“It was a hard decision, but Swansea just felt the right fit,” Ferri said. “As soon as I left, I wanted to get back there as quick as I could.”
Swansea will cover his room and board and schooling costs and provide him with a small stipend this season. Ferri will then turn professional in March of 2018.
“This definitely will be the biggest jump of my life,” Ferri said.
“Not just on the field, but it’ll be a big challenge adopting a new lifestyle. I’m ready to deal with the adversity I know will come my way in the first few months.”
For his parents Johnny and Tanya, seeing their son leave the nest so soon and so unexpectedly has left them reeling like one of the flailing defenders Gianni Ferri so often leaves in his wake.
“It’s crazy what’s happening, but we support him 100 per cent,” Tanya Ferri said.
“You worry as a parent him being far away with no family over there. But we’re so proud of what he’s done and how hard he’s worked to get there.”
His father admits the couple would feel more comfortable had he pursued options on the same side of the Atlantic Ocean, but Ferri is following a familiar path.
“He’s always reached a point where he’s ready to take the next step to a higher challenge,” Johnny Ferri said.
“He’s been determined as long as I can remember. You can’t hold him back from living his life.”
Ferri, who was 15 at the time, got a taste of what to expect when he went over to England for trials with Premier League clubs last January. He spent his first week with Watford before moving on to Swansea in the second week.
“The environment is so cutthroat over there,” said Ferri, who has captained the Ontario under14s and has been invited to three national youth team camps. “I was the only player on a trial. “No (players) wanted to be friends or talk to me. I got fouled a lot and they told me to go home or worse.
“I loved the challenge. I held my own and scored some goals.
“I understand we’re all competing for jobs.”
Ferri more than held his own, he earned a promotion to train with Watford’s U-23 team after his first day.
That Ferri handled the frosty reception is no surprise to Leighton Speechley-Price.
“He’s very competitive,” said Speechley-Price, technical director for the area’s district club Essex County United.
“Some kids, when they run up against a physical defender, they’ll disappear from the game. He’ll pick himself up and go at you twice as hard. “He’s going to be successful.” Speechley-Price was so convinced of that he used some of his contacts in his native England to get the trials at Watford and Swansea.
There were other teams in England and Europe, along with MLS teams and U.S. colleges, which had expressed interest in him.
“I wasn’t the only one who spotted he had something special because someone else was arranging trials for him too,” Speechley-Price said.
“He’s one of the best kids I’ve seen at being able to score with both feet. He’s got pace, he’s athletic and his ability to take players on is fantastic.
“He’s got great vision and he’s an excellent passer.”
Ferri has honed those skills the past four years playing in Michigan.
The last three have been with Vardar’s United States Development Academy U13/14 and U15/16 teams where he won the U.S. national under-14 title.
The 16-year-old has scored 38 goals in 46 games in the past two seasons against the best amateur competition in the U.S.
“They said I have a nose for the goal,” said Ferri trying to explain his goal-scoring gift.
“I move off the ball and find space. I just work hard.”
Aside from his skills on the field, Speechley-Price said the coaching staffs were struck by Ferri’s attitude, maturity and desire to learn.
“They loved his professionalism,” Speechley-Price said.
That professionalism has manifested itself in Ferri fully understanding the enormity of the opportunity before him and how what he’s done up to now has merely been preparation for the real work about to begin.
“It’s a crazy big challenge,” Ferri said. “I’ve got to keep my head in the right place.
“It’s a case of me wanting to do the same things as my idols (Cristiano Ronaldo, Roberto Baggio, Zinedine Zidane). I’ll do whatever it takes.”