Long before Eddie Johnson, Freddy Adu or Jozy Altidore, Santino Quaranta was once the wunderkind of Major League Soccer, the bright young hope pegged to become a breakout star for both club and country. The direct route to stardom didn't quite work out the way he planned, however, and after a trying journey he now finds himself back at D.C. United, the club where it all began, eager to make up for lost time and fulfill his potential.
"I used to think it was a point to prove to everybody else," said Quaranta, discussing the "long road back" that has made him perhaps the league's most experienced 23-year-old.
"Now it's just proving to myself and being comfortable in my own skin: the amount of work I do, feeling comfortable in knowing that I'm doing my best. Before, I wasn't doing my best. I wasn't doing the amount of work that needed to be [done] to be where I wanted to be."
After earning a new contract with D.C. last month, Quaranta has impressed head coach Tom Soehn enough to earn several opportunities in United's early matches and is presently one of the team's first attacking options off the bench -- though he sees that as merely the first step.
"I have goals and I feel like I don't want to be a reserve," he said, describing his ambitions for 2008. "I've been around eight years. I can bring a lot of experience to the team. ... I expect to be a starter."
Drafted by D.C. United with the eighth pick of the 2001SuperDraft at the then-record-breaking age of 16, the Baltimore native enjoyed early success, notching five goals as a rookie, earning an All-Star nod and setting a host of "youngest-ever" league marks in the process. Like many other sports starlets, however, he struggled to handle the multifarious demands of the pro game and the burden of expectation that came along with his gifts.
"It was kind of given to me, man," admitted Quaranta recently, looking back on the teenage days when raw ability alone made him an MLS standout. "I worked hard but I guess I rode talent and trained for a little bit. I just got by on that. Being so young and having it handed to you, then getting to the top, you get to a point where you feel like you can't do anything wrong, and it's going to be forever. But as easy as it came, it can go. I learned that too."
When his development was stalled by a litany of injuries and the slow, steady growth of a reputation for attitude problems, many thought Quaranta was finished -- a flash in the pan who'd peaked too early.
He was shipped out to L.A. in 2006 and made a brief impact with the Galaxy -- including an antagonistic return to RFK Stadium that saw him respond to some fans' taunting with rude gestures of his own in a 5-2 LA win. But he was traded back east to the New York Red Bulls a year later, playing just 47 minutes before missing the rest of the campaign due to injury as he strained to keep his life in order both on and off the field.
"That's absolutely, 100 percent true," he said, when asked about the rumors of poor work habits that prompted L.A. and New York to give up on him so readily. "I guess it took me hitting the bottom to realize that everything I did in my life wasn't proper, in every aspect of being accountable for things."
New York waived him in January, prompting a period of soul-searching that saw him rededicate himself to his career and his family, working his way back to fitness in order to secure a second chance with United.
"Certainly the kid has always had a lot of talent," said D.C. general manager Dave Kasper. "But for him it's a matter of putting it all together, being really focused, and he's really changed and learned. I think he hit rock bottom in his career last year with the two trades, and I think he realizes that D.C. United is the place he wants to be, but he realizes that the little things he has to do every day, taking care of his body, doing the extra work, that will pay off for him."
Now, a more settled Quaranta looks to a deeper well of motivation: within himself and in his devotion to his wife Petrina, who teaches at a school in Baltimore, and their five-year-old child Olivia. The trio plans to move closer to RFK when the current school year is completed, another sign that the teenage prodigy has grown into a family man.
"That's the best part of my life right now, my wife and my daughter," he said. "I love playing, don't get me wrong. I figured out that this is a game and you work at it as a team. But what comes first is my wife and my daughter."
He was quick to reach out to the Black-and-Red fans on his return to D.C., apologizing for the 2006 incident and approaching the supporters' clubs to make amends after his first official appearance, in the 5-0 CONCACAF Champions' Cup win against Harbour View FC. Calling this year's United squad "a close-knit family," he sounds like someone who's finally found his home.
"My heart has always been here," he said. "It didn't always work out that way, but it's really nice to be back, to be around everybody again. This is the best organization in the league. Just to be around here is special."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
