An 18-year-old high school senior named David Bingham who currently tends goal for California High, is scrambling to finish his first semester classes so he can go to Italy in the next few weeks, where he’ll join Serie A side Calgiari on a multi-year contract. Wha?Bingham, who is passing up full scholarship offers from 14 Division I schools to take this chance, first impressed the Italian club over the summer, when they saw him playing with his club team at a tournament on the east coast. He went to Italy shortly thereafter on a two week trial, they did some long-distance chatting, and now both parties are set to make the move permanent.

The kid’s been told that he’ll immediately start training with the first team, and likely will play with the primavera side, at least at first. Not lacking for confidence, though, Bingham has plans to make his Serie A debut sometimes in the second half. You go, David.

If he expects to be thrown right in there, he’s probably in the right place: Cagliari are the worst team in Serie A, with a dismal goal difference. They’re already on their second manager and are look awfully likely to go down, so god only knows what madness they might try to when things get really desperate come February and March. I wonder, can Bingham play striker? Because, now that David Suazo has run off to Inter, they really need one of those.