Dos Santos joined Barcelona when 13 and played alongside the likes of  Lionel Messi and Bojan Krkic in the youth ranks and while he featured in the first team fleetingly in the 2007-2008 season, Gio finished in style with a hat-trick in the last game of the season, after injury had kept him out for a while.

Son of Gerardo dos Santos, who is known by his nickname of "Zizinho" in Brazil, where he was an accomplished club footballer, playing for America and Leon in Mexico in the 1980s.  He coached his sons at a young age and formed a school in Sao Paulo, leading to the side being invited to the prestigious Dallas youth tournament, where Giovani took part in the Under-12 age group.  Gerardo decided that his son should go to the local Monterrey club to have a trial, where he developed well until he was spotted by Barcelona when playing for Sao Paolo of Monterrey in a tournament in France and taken to Spain to play in their youth structure.  He went on, at the age of 16, to play in the FIFA World Under-17 Championships to take Mexico to the title, qualifying as his mother, Liliana, is Mexican.  It was at this tournament that Dos Santos was voted the second best player, behind Anderson of Brazil (and Manchester United).

Haas gone on to become a full international and while he lacks consistency at his young age, his skills have been likened to those of Ronaldinho.  To settle him into the Spanish way of life, his whole family moved to Barcelona with him and they subsequently moved to Essex when he joined Spurs.

On 27th May 2008, Giovani played for Barcelona in their last game of the season - away at Real Murcia.  Turning on the style to show exactly what he is capable of, the player scored a hat-trick to help Barca to a 5-3 win.

Has brothers, Jonathan (who plays for Barcelona's youth side) and Eder, who plays for the America club in Mexico.

Nearly joined Portsmouth in the January 2009 transfer window, but his lack of match fitness saw the deal fall through and then he scored his first competitive goal for Spurs in the UEFA Cup tie at White Hart Lane against Shakhtar Donetsk.  In March of that season, Giovani was loaned out to Ipswich Town until the end of the season.

Having won the Gold Cup with Mexico in 2009 and been voted the tournament's most valuable player, having scored in the final against the USA, it looked like he might have a place in the first team squad for the 2009-2010 season, but after playing well in the League Cup tie at Doncaster, he picked up an injury that kept him out and ended up with him leaving for Galatasaray on loan in January 2010.  After playing regularly in Turkey, he was an ever present in Mexico's build up to the World Cup finals and was a star for his country as they reached the last 16 in South Africa.

The following season was spent on the fringes of the first team squad and injured, before go off on loan to Racing Santander in January 2011.  Once back at Tottenham at the end of the season, rumours about him moving away started to circulate, with Sevilla interested.  During the summer, he scored a sublime chip against the US to round off a 4-2 victory in the Gold Cup final for Mexico in the Pasadena Rosebowl.  Maybe that persuaded Spurs to stick with him, but amidst rumours of moves to Spain, when Tottenham had arranged a deal with Udinese for the player that would have turned a profit, there was some bad feeling knocking around in pre-season 2011.

However, Giovani enjoyed one of his best seasons with Spurs, although he was still very much on the fringes of everything, but did feature in the Europa League campaign and scored a couple of goals for the first team, still not showing his full abilities in a Tottenham shirt.  The opportunity to move on and for the new manager Andre Villas-Boas to shape his own side saw Gio move to Mallorca in the summer of 2012, returning to Spain where the game was more suited to his style.  Within a season, his club had been relegated and the Mexican moved on to Villarreal, with rumours that Spurs had a 50% sell-on clause in the reported £7 million deal.