On Saturday at BMO Field, Toronto FC hammered Orlando City 5-0, and Sebastian Giovinco was again at the heart of things for the hosts. He scored one – a brilliant free-kick – made another, and burnished his video-game statistics in his debut MLS season. Seventeen goals, 12 assists, the most shots on goal – and he’s yanked his new club into the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race. To watch Giovinco is to appreciate a player at the top of his game. As the Globe and Mail said of the 5ft 4in Italian: “Everyone else is playing checkers. He’s playing three-dimensional chess.”

Is Giovinco the league’s most valuable player? Greg Vanney, Toronto’s American coach, is unequivocal: “I don’t think there’s any question on that side of things.”

Vanney has the pleasure of seeing Giovinco every day. “I break down video when I go back and look at our team, watch our games over and over, and I can’t help pick out some of the moments that he puts on the field, whether in the game or in training.”

Everybody has a favorite moment. For Giovinco, it was the hat-trick he scored in nine minutes against NYC FC, though he cautioned that he views MLS goals as distinct from his accomplishments with Italy or with Juventus.

“The hat-trick was one of my best moments, and one of my first ever,” Giovinco says through a translator. “It meant a lot to share this moment with my team, my community and my city. And compared to my other goals, Champions League or Italy, it’s just a different moment. So you can’t really compare it.”

Critics of the league point out that Giovinco never managed to dominate play in Europe the way he has with Toronto FC. But as his coach argues, many players with greater European pedigree have came to MLS, and none of them dominated the way Giovinco has so far.

“In terms of skill, ability and talent, he’s got to be among the best players who have ever come through this league, and maybe at the top of that list,” Vanney says. “But aside from that, what will take us a little bit longer to determine is the winning factor. David [Beckham] was able to come here and win championships. [Robbie] Keane has come and won championships. And I think that’s also a measure of greatness for the league. But just in terms of talent, excitement, ability, he might very well be at the top of that list.

“He has the qualities for this league that are very good. In MLS, as the minutes tick away, the games open up a little bit more. Space appears. And he’s so deadly in space. He is so good on the dribble, taking people on, getting inside of people, getting outside of people. And then his ability to finish or set up guys is like nobody else in the league – now or in the past.”

Giovinco’s stellar performances might be down to a change in regime: he’s now fitter and sharper, something acknowledged by both player and coach.

“At the moment, I’m very happy with my performance,” Giovinco says. “The last couple of years, I haven’t been in very good shape. And now, I’m very happy to keep scoring, helping the team to achieve their goals. But I’m feeling better as well. I’m playing better than I was in Europe.”

In Vanney’s opinion, getting him on the field for consistent minutes has yielded the dividends. “He plays every game for us, he plays 90 minutes,” Vanney says. “He was with Juventus, one of the best teams in the world. So perhaps he just needs consistency, stretches of games. And you start to see more of those qualities come out, to do things that, in my opinion, not many players in the world are capable of doing.”

What kinds of things? Varney explains.

“For me, one of the moments that I thought was tremendous was against Dallas, and we were having a rough night: rain delays, we got on the wrong side of the game early on. And there was a ball that was switched to him, I think it was 60 yards or so. And on the dead sprint, he took the ball with the outside of his foot, with a guy closing him down, and went around the corner, cut to the endline, had no angle, the keeper came to cut him off, and as he did so, he chipped it over the keeper.

“The skill to take the ball on the run at the exact speed, the precise touch, and then the presence of mind to flip it up over the goalkeeper’s shoulder …

“For me, that was so class. I will never forget that moment. But we see him in training and in games, he gets the ball dropped into him at the dead sprint, he gets the ball exactly where he needs it at full stride. And that’s such a skill you don’t see in the North American player.”

It’s enough to make you wonder whether Giovinco, still just 28, will stick around. He’s on a two-year contract with Toronto, and he’s making excellent money: at $7.1m a year, his is the second highest salary in the league. (Kaka is top.) But does he want to return to Serie A? Giovinco is non-committal: “For now, my goal is to play here and perform well. As for the future, you never know.”

He likes the anonymity of playing in Canada. It’s something Tim Cahill often spoke about when he played with the New York Red Bulls.

“The difference between Italy and here is that here we can enjoy time with family, time with friends,” Giovinco says. “So after training, we can just go for a walk, we can go for an ice cream with the family, shopping, whatever. And when we do get stopped by fans, they are very respectful, and they are not so touchy and aggressive. So it’s a different lifestyle, and I’m definitely enjoying it.”

While he enjoys this Canadian life – and his family back home gets to watch him play, thanks to MLS’ rapidly expanding TV deals– MLS, too, would reap the benefits if Giovinco’s form leads to a recall by the Italian national team, where he hasn’t played since 2014.

“I think it would be great for him, because it means people are paying attention to him, and he hasn’t fallen off the radar,” Vanney says. “And I think it would be great for the league. That you can be top player, and come here, build on your skillset, and go back to your national team and still be in the picture.

“We’ve seen Robbie Keane – when he’s gone back, he’s been very good for his national team. So my hope is he will get that opportunity. He has abilities that are second to none, that can be useful at the international level no matter what country you play for.”

In the meantime, Giovinco has redefined what to expect from even a star player in Major League Soccer. People don’t just look to Giovinco to score goals and create assists, they are shocked when he doesn’t.

It’s the kind of pressure that may be new to Giovinco, and Vanney believes that will only help him get back into the Italian picture.

“From an outside perception, it is that the league is making progress, that the league is a magnet for younger and younger players to come here, and continue to build a career, and continue to keep doors open for their national teams, and continue to grow as players.

“Now he has to take on a role of being a leader among the group that maybe he doesn’t have to take on at a Juventus. He doesn’t have to necessarily have to be a leader on that team, but that is a skillset he’s building with us. Our team relies on Sebastian at times to be the guy for us, week in and week out. And he’s better for it.”