“I love Verratti. I like his vision of the game. He never loses the ball…” The phrase ‘I love Verratti’ is, justifiably, a common one. The little Italian’s style, grace and guile has been one of the main attractions of French football since his arrival from Pescara in 2012. But for the master of Verratti’s number 6 role, Barcelona hero, Xavi, to adorn him with such testimony equates to the highest of praise for a talent that can’t be understated.

PSG’s midfield fulcrum effortless glides across the pristine pitch at the Parc de Princes, ghosting past his opponents and directing play with the panache of a conductor conducting his orchestra. For many, joy in football is largely derived from style, skill and flair and the way in which Verratti realizes the vision Xavi spoke of is heavily routed in all three. At his best, Verratti’s effortless verve is one of the most compelling sights in world football.

However, Verratti’s attraction both for the Capital Club faithful and the neutral observer comes not just from his undoubted ability but the persona he exudes both on the pitch and away from it too. The wide eyed youthfulness, almost naivety, with which Verratti continues to ply his most finessed of trades makes him further enthralling still and somewhat unusual within the upper reaches of the European game, more readily characterised by cynical, egotistical personalities.

Perhaps just as important to his success as his supreme technical ability and spectrum of passing is the fact that Verratti is the most grounded and level headed of young professionals, retaining a degree of honesty and openness as a player and a man. Having moved to Paris at an early age with his long term partner and having been so quickly and passionately accepted by the PSG supporters, Gufetto (a nickname meaning ‘Little Owl’ given to him by girlfriend Laura Zazzara and adopted by PSG fans) is at home in the French capital. Paris is where he has started and is raising his family, a fact which is often overlooked by potential suitors but one crucial to the Italian, a true family man.  “I made a choice of life, that of founding a family.” Veratti explained to One Yard last year. “Even though at 23 I can seem young, I grew faster thanks to football. I love spending time with my family.”

A strong sense of family may be a key part of Verratti’s attachment to city of Paris but this feeling is also prevalent in a footballing sense. Being a young and precociously talented player with little top level experience upon his signing, Pescara were promoted to Serie A the season he left, a keen interest in Verratti’s development was taken, not just by the staff but by the long time professionals within the squad who took him under their collective wing.”Right away, everyone took me like the son, the boy of this team.” Verratti told AFP in 2015 “And every day that passes I feel better here, with the confidence of my teammates, the staff. I am still young and for a youngster confidence is the most important.” A year earlier he stated in a PSG TV interview that “at their contact, I gained in maturity. Becoming a father also allowed me to become more mature. I have more responsibilities now.”

These responsibilities have aided the Italian’s development both as a man and as a player. The maturing of his playing style and the way that he conducts himself on the pitch over the last few years has been an overt and engaging process. While his Paris career was in its infancy, Verratti’s tendency to let his youthful exuberance get the better of him became almost a running gag amongst watchers of PSG, with Verratti (drawing strong parallels to another midfield master, Paul Scholes) flying into tackles, sometimes a little recklessly, earning bookings with almost comic regularity. The arrival of former Les Bleu centre back (and, little known to many, Montpellier’s all time top scorer) Laurent Blanc began to erode this frustratingly loose area of his game. Verratti himself admitted to Telefoot in 2014 that “it is perhaps a defect but I always want to recover the ball, even when it is not possible. I’m young and I’m sure I have to correct that.” Nevertheless, Verratti’s carefree attitude and boyish grin persist on occasion, a laughably blatant attempt to halt a Bastia counter attack last year to was a notable instance when his cheekiness bubbled to the surface, smirking to himself before shaking his victims had after almost removing his shirt.

Despite this sense of fun with which Verratti plays, he can occasionally let the clear competitive streak he also processes take over. Verratti has joked about PSG’s president warning him about talking to referees but he insists that: “I love to have fun too. We do a fantastic job.” Verratti told La Parisien in 2015 “There are so many people who are less lucky than us.”  Furthermore, PSG’s Little Owl maintains that, despite the maturity he is slowly garnering from his elders such as Blanc, Thiago Motta and previously Eziquiel Lavezzi, a close friend of the Italian’s before leaving for China (perhaps explaining, in part, his recurring cheeky side), remaining true to his own philosophy is equally crucial to his success and development. “If I change my way of playing, I will no longer be myself” explained Verratti to AFP, “that’s how I play, since I was a child, and I want it to stay like this for as long as possible. It’s my style, it will never change. At first it was true that I felt that  [Laurent Blanc] was suffering when he saw me play like that. But now [he] lets me play as I always did. It’s up to me to know when I have to do it and when it should not.”

Although Verratti’s undoubted ability and footballing grace have both been plain for some time, undergoing notable development and progression, he has hit something of a bump or two in the last year which has destabilised his form and seemingly his conviction. A unusual pubic bone injury troubled him repeatedly throughout 2016 with the issue requiring extensive rest in order for him to recover fully, a luxury Blanc and PSG rarely had. Repeated attempts to either ease him back or push him to play in bigger games often backfired and resulted in further setbacks. While Verratti’s early instance that an operation would not be needed perhaps also proved to be a misstep. As when he and PSG’s medical team were eventually left with little choice, the surgery resulted in his absence from Euro 2016, an obvious source of disappointment for the proud Italian.

Under Unai Emery, Verratti’s fitness has been managed with a degree more care and nuance, allowing him to fully recover from the problem over the summer and in the early weeks of 2016 to return to the side week after week. Unfortunately however, his form has taken a little longer to recover. Although his performances have often still oozed the smoothness of his best work during the new campaign, that work has been done a little more in the background than before. PSG’s struggles under Emery and the realisation of Ligue 1 sides in particular that the Parisiens can be pressed and hurried into errors has also contributed to a downturn in the number 6’s influence with faithful wise-man Motta, regularly used as a passing wall by Verratti deep in midfield, also entering the latter stages of his career and a period of decline.

A slight switch in style and set up under the Spanish coach has also gone some way to heightening some uneasiness on the Italian’s part. The classic Blanc triumvirate of Verratti, Motta and Blaise Matuidi has been broken up by Emery, with varying results and arguably to the detriment of Verratti’s ability to affect the game. Although this may be a necessity, at least in some instances, if Paris are going to have more impact on the European stage, the balance of what was the strongest area of the side, has been disrupted. The security of Motta behind and the support of Matuidi alongside clearly allowed Verratti to express himself in the more possession heavy approach of the French coach but the admittedly somewhat glacial move to 4231 over the autumn and winter with the additions of Hatem Ben Arfa, Gregory Krychowiak and now Julien Draxler as well as Emery’s more direct style has left Gufetto exposed more than the would like. As a result, Xavi’s affirmation that ‘he never gives the ball away’ is not the truism it once was.

Nevertheless Verratti’s confidence in his ability and desire to play his own game remain unrelenting: “Soccer, for me it is the most beautiful thing that exists.” He told Telefoot. “When you do it with passion, you can not hurt it. I can miss a pass, a control, a shot but the urge will always be there. The day I no longer have this flame, I will stop playing.” Meanwhile, the man himself clearly sees his place in the side as just that; just one of many. Again, perhaps unusually for a genuinely world class player, individual acclaim is not something that interests Verratti, as he humbly admitted to Le Parisien: “There are a lot of players much stronger than me. I prefer to win trophies with my team, because it allows me to party with them. With the Ballon D’or you party on your own …”

At just 24, PSG’s Little Owl has his best years ahead of him and although a playful naivety remains evident in his performances, the fact that he both has learnt a great deal and still has a clear capacity to develop further still is a thrilling prospect. Nevertheless, Verratti remains level headed as ever and focused on what lies ahead. “It’s up to every single guy to understand that arriving in a great team is a starting point and not the finish line”, Verratti explained to AFP. “I always try to learn from my team-mates by listening to their advice. It was up to me to develop my playing skills. When you’re part of a big club, if you’re smart, you get better. There’s always something to learn.” Unbelievably, despite the heights already reached, potential remains the watchword for Gufetto and, should he be able to fully realise that potential, a certain individual award may come his way whether he seeks it or not.