Ignacio Alberto Piatti (born 4 February 1985) is an Argentine former 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 played as a winger.

Club career

Piatti has played professional football in Europe with

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...

and

Lecce Lecce (; ) is a city in southern Italy and capital of the province of Lecce. It is on the Salentine Peninsula, at the heel of the Italian Peninsula, and is over two thousand years old. Because of its rich Baroque architecture, Lecce is n ...

. In his native Argentina, he has played for

Chacarita Juniors Club Atlético Chacarita Juniors (usually known simply as Chacarita) is an Argentine association football, football club headquartered in Villa Crespo, Buenos Aires, while the stadium is located in Villa Maipú, General San Martín Partido of Gre ...

, Gimnasia LP, and Independiente. On 17 August 2012 Piatti signed for the Argentine club

San Lorenzo de Almagro Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro is an Argentine professional sports club based in the Boedo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its football team, which plays in the Primera División, the first tier of the Argentine foot ...

for a reported fee of €1 million. He debuted against Colon de Santa Fe in the sixth match of Torneo Inicial 2012, Ignacio was the player of the match. On 2 July 2014, Piatti signed a transfer agreement with Canadian club Montreal Impact of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

. However, he remained with San Lorenzo until the team completed their

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

campaign. He reported to Montreal on 13 August 2014, and debuted for Montreal against the Chicago Fire on 16 August. When Piatti joined the Impact, he was an instantaneous success, scoring 4 goals in 6 games. He started all six games in the 2014–15 CONCACAF Champions League Championship Stage and helped the team reach the final, where they lost out against Mexican giants

Club América Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Club América, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City. Nicknamed ''Las Águilas'' (The Eagles), it competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football ...

, recording two goals and one assist in 526 minutes played. He also helped the team reach the Eastern Conference Final of the 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs. He and the club mutually agreed to terminate the contract on 10 February 2020, allowing him to sign a new contract with first division Argentine club San Lorenzo. At the time of his departure, Piatti was the all-time top goalscorer of the Montreal Impact, with 78 goals in all competitions, and the second all-time assist leader. Piatti also ranked first in Impact club history with 130 regular-season starts, 66 MLS goals, 11,427 minutes played, 35 assists, 15 penalty goals, 15 game-winning goals, 13 game-winning assists, and 14 multi-goal games. He also registered five goals and three assists in eight starts in the MLS Cup playoffs during his time with the club.

Style of play

A dynamic attacker, Piatti is a technically skilled dribbler, who is capable of both creating and scoring goals, and is able to play in several midfield roles. Although he is capable of playing in the centre, behind another striker, he usually plays on the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

, which is his favorite position, as it enables him to cut into the centre and shoot on goal with his stronger right foot; regarding his preference for this position, he has stated, "I played on the left for a long time, in Argentina, for example...I’d rather play on the left. I’m comfortable there." Although he is usually deployed in

midfield In many sports, midfield is the part of a sports field that is near the line that is equally far from the end lines. That is, in American football it is the part of the field near the 50-yard line; in association football (soccer) and field hoc ...

, Piatti has also been fielded in several more offensive roles, and has been used as a

second striker In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on bein ...

, as a false-9, or even as an out-and-out striker on occasion.

Personal life

Pedro, the grandfather and first coach of Piatti, died in March 2015. Piatti paid tribute to him by lifting his jersey to reveal the message ‘Abuelo te amo’, which translates to 'Grandfather, I love you', on a couple of occasions, most notably at Estadio Azteca after he scored the opener in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League Finals.

Honours

San Lorenzo *

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 ...

: 2013 Inicial *

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Montreal Impact *

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, ...

runner up: 2014–15 *

Canadian Championship The Canadian Championship () is an annual soccer tournament contested by Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. It is contested by Major League Soccer sides Toronto FC, Va ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Individual *

MLS All-Star The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual Association football, soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from another league. MLS initially ado ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

MLS Best XI The MLS Best XI is an annual acknowledgment of the best eleven players in Major League Soccer. The selection is determined by a collection of media, players, and MLS club technical staffs. Winners Appearances by player The following players ...

* Montreal Impact Most Valuable Player: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 * Montreal Impact Top Scorer: 2016, 2017, 2018 *

Top Scorer:

* George Gross Memorial Trophy: 2019

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Piatti, Ignacio 1985 births Living people Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Córdoba Province, Argentina AS Saint-Étienne players Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata footballers Club Atlético Independiente footballers Chacarita Juniors footballers San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers Copa Libertadores–winning players US Lecce players CF Montréal players Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers Ligue 1 players Serie A players Argentine Primera División players Major League Soccer players Major League Soccer All-Stars Designated Players (MLS) Argentine expatriate sportspeople in France Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Italy Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada 21st-century Argentine sportsmen