Germán Alejo Pezzella (; born 27 June 1991) is an Argentine professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

club River Plate and the Argentina national team, with whom he won the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

Club career

Early career

After impressing with the former's reserves he was called up to the pre-season in Canada, appearing in friendlies against

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matc ...

, Montreal Impact and Everton.

River Plate

Upon being an unused substitute in a goalless away draw against

Club Atlético Huracán Club Atlético Huracán () is an Argentine sports club from the Parque Patricios neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is notable for its association football, football team, that currently plays in the Argentine Primera División, Primera Divi ...

on 18 October 2009, Pezzella made his senior debut on 7 December 2011, starting in a 1–0 home victory against

Defensores de Belgrano Club Atlético Defensores de Belgrano (usually known as Defensores de Belgrano) is an Argentina, Argentine sports club from Nuñez, Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its association football, football team, which currently plays in Primer ...

for the season's

Copa Argentina The Copa Argentina (English: ''Argentine Cup''), officially known as the "Copa Argentina AXION energy" due to sponsorship reasons, is an official football cup competition organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The first editions ...

. His league debut came on 2 March of the following year, where he played the full 90 minutes in a 0–0 home draw against

Quilmes Atlético Club Quilmes Atlético Club () is an Argentine sports club based in the Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Quilmes district of Greater Buenos Aires. Established in 1887 (although the date of foundation is still under dispute), Quilmes is the oldest club of Arg ...

. Pezzella scored his first professional goal on 2 September 2012, netting the last in a 1–1 draw at

Club Atlético Colón Club Atlético Colón de Santa Fe (), commonly referred to as Colón de Santa Fe , is a sports club from Santa Fe, Argentina. The football team plays in the second Division of the Argentine football league system, the Primera Nacional. It was ...

. He also scored the equalizer in a 1–1

Superclásico ''SuperClásico'' is a 2011 Danish romantic comedy film set in Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American coun ...

home draw against

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

, just three minutes after coming off the bench. On 10 December 2014, Pezzella scored the last in a

2014 Copa Sudamericana The 2014 Copa Sudamericana (officially the 2014 Copa Total Sudamericana for sponsorship reasons) was the 13th edition of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's secondary international club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. Lanús were the ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

2–0 win against

Atlético Nacional Atlético Nacional S. A., best known as Atlético Nacional, is a Colombian professional football club based in Medellín. The club is one of only three clubs to have played in every first division tournament in the country's history, the other ...

, as his side won its first international title after a 17-year absence.

Playing abroad

On 10 July 2015, Pezzella signed a five-year contract with

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

, newly promoted to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

. He made his debut for the club on 23 August, starting in a 1–1 home draw against

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D., usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Villarreal, in the Province of Castellón, Castellón province of easte ...

. After a loan spell with

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

during the 2017–18 season, Pezzella signed a five-year contract with the club that runs through the end of the 2021–22 season for an €11m transfer fee. Ahead of the 2018–19 season, he was named the club's new

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. On 19 August 2021, Pezzella returned to Betis after signing a four-year deal.

Return to River Plate

On 5 August 2024, Pezzella returned to River Plate after nine years abroad.

International career

Youth

On 1 September 2011, Pezzella was called up to that year's

Pan American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

Senior

In October 2017, Pezzella received his first call-up to Argentina national team for the

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia national football team, Rus ...

against

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, respectively the same year on 5 October and

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

10 October. On 11 November, he debuted in a 1–0 friendly draw against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. In May 2018, Pezzella was named in the Argentina national team's preliminary 35-man squad for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

in Russia, but did not make the final 23. On 27 March 2019, Pezzella served as captain of Argentina in an away 1–0 friendly win against

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. He was included in Argentina's 26-man squad for the

, coming on as a substitute in extra-time of the

as his country won a third world title by defeating

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

on penalties. In June 2024, Pezzella was included in Lionel Scaloni's final 26-man Argentina squad for the

2024 Copa América The 2024 Copa América was the 48th edition of the Copa América, the quadrennial international men's association football, soccer championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. The tournament was held in the United Sta ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Argentina's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Pezzella goal.''

Honours

Real Betis: 2021–22 Argentina *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Copa América The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions The Finalissima or officially CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions, formerly known as European/South American Nations Cup and also called Artemio Franchi Cup, is an intercontinental football match organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested by th ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Real Betis website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pezzella, German 1991 births Living people Footballers from Bahía Blanca Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent Argentine men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Argentine Primera División players Primera Nacional players Club Atlético River Plate footballers La Liga players Real Betis players Serie A players ACF Fiorentina players Argentina men's youth international footballers Argentina men's under-20 international footballers Footballers at the 2011 Pan American Games Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Pan American Games silver medalists for Argentina Pan American Games silver medalists in football 2019 Copa América players 2021 Copa América players 2022 FIFA World Cup players 2024 Copa América players FIFA World Cup–winning players Argentina men's international footballers Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games Copa América–winning players Copa Libertadores–winning players Copa Sudamericana–winning players 21st-century Argentine sportsmen