Jorge Nicolás Pandiani Quaglia (born 10 April 1994), known as Nicolás or Nico Pandiani, is a Uruguayan

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 for Spanish

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

club Navarro. He plays either at

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

or as a

central defender 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 ...

. Pandiani's career has alternated between the lower divisions of Spanish football, with

Villarreal C Villarreal Club de Fútbol "C" is the third team of Villarreal CF, a Spanish football team based in Villarreal, in the autonomous community of Valencia. Founded in 2002, and plays in , holding home games at '' Ciudad Deportiva Villarreal CF'', wi ...

Atlético Baleares Atlético, Spanish for ''athletics'', or Athletico in English, may refer to: Sports Teams Athletico *Athletico SC (Lebanon), a Lebanese football academy *Athletic Bilbao, or Atletico Bilbao, Basque students athletic club (also forming Athletic Cl ...

Marino de Luanco Club Marino de Luanco is a Spanish football team based in Luanco, in the autonomous community of Asturias. Founded in 1931 it plays in , holding home games at '' Estadio Miramar'', with a capacity of 3,500 seats. History Marino Luanco was founde ...

Masnou ; ) is a municipality in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is situated on the coast between Montgat and Premià de Mar, to the north-east of the city of Barcelona, in the ''comarca'' (county) of el Maresme. The town is both a tour ...

Real Avilés Real may refer to: Currencies * Argentine real * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Nature and science * Reality, the state of things as they exist, rath ...

and mst recently Navarro, and the Uruguayan professional divisions, with

Miramar Misiones Club Sportivo Miramar Misiones, usually known simply as Miramar Misiones is a Uruguayan football club based in Montevideo. The club was formed from the merger of two clubs: Miramar (founded on October 17, 1915) and Misiones (founded on March 26, ...

, for which he played Primera División football alongside his father,

Walter Pandiani Walter Gerardo Pandiani Urquiza (born 27 April 1976) is a Uruguayan football manager and former player who played as a striker. His performances for Peñarol earned him a move to Deportivo in Spain, where he remained for the vast majority of ...

, and

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

. He also spent half a season with

Maltese Premier League The Maltese Premier League, known as 360Sports Malta Premier for sponsorship reasons with 360Sports (colloquialism, colloquially known as ''Il-Kampjonat Premjer''), is the highest level of professional football in Malta. Managed by the Malta Foot ...

club

Ħamrun Spartans Ħamrun Spartans Football Club is a Maltese professional football club based in Ħamrun. Since being founded in 1907, Ħamrun Spartans have won 11 league championships, the latest one being in 2025, while being runners-up eleven times. One of t ...

Life and career

Pandiani was born in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, Uruguay, the eldest of three sons of Uruguay international striker

. The family moved to Spain after Walter established his career there. Nico played in the youth system of CE Premià, and had linked up with the junior teams of

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as RCD Espanyol, is a Spanish professional sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The club competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spa ...

in 2012–13 pre-season as part of a trial, but then followed his father to

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

in August 2012, where he was to play for the club's C team. In January 2013, the pair moved on to

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

(third tier) club

, where son as well as father signed a first-team contract. Pandiani made his league debut on 14 April, as a second-half substitute in a 2–0 win away to Levante B, and played once more, starting the penultimate game of the season, a 2–1 defeat away at

Sant Andreu Sant Andreu () is one of the ten districts of Barcelona since its redistricting in 1984. It was named after the former municipality of Sant Andreu de Palomar, which was the largest in the area and now makes up the bulk of the neighbourhood beari ...

, in which his father scored the opening goal. In late October 2013, Pandiani and Walter returned to Uruguay to join Primera División strugglers

, where Walter hoped to fulfil his dream of playing professionally in the same team as his son (Atlético Baleares was not a professional team). Pandiani was ineligible to play in the

Apertura The ' () and ' () tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is ...

, and he finally made his professional debut – under his father's captaincy – on the third matchday of the

Clausura The ' () and ' () tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is ...

, on 16 February 2014 away to

El Tanque Sisley El Tanque Sisley is a football club from Montevideo in Uruguay. They currently play in the Uruguayan 3rd Division. The club were founded in 1955 with the name ''Club Atlético El Tanque'', on December 15, 1981 the club were amalgamated with '' ...

. Miramar lost 1–0, and Pandiani failed to clear the ball that set up the goal for the hosts. He played once more before relegation was confirmed with five games still to play, and then started the remaining matches to bring his total appearances to seven. For the 2014–15 season, Pandiani returned to Spain and signed for Segunda B club

. He made his debut on 20 September as a very late substitute in a 2–2 draw at Atlético Astorga, and made 13 league appearances over the season. His team struggled throughout the campaign, and finished 15 points adrift at the bottom of the division. Pandiani left Luanco at the end of the season and returned to Uruguay, where he trained with and was reported to have signed for

of the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

. Although expected to start the opening match of the season at the end of October, administrative issues related to international clearance prevented his appearance. A few days later, Spanish club

announced his arrival on a contract to the end of the 2015–16 season. He scored twice from 23

appearances, mostly as a starter, before again returning to Uruguay. He re-signed for Miramar Misiones in September 2016, but played only three matches in the before signing definitively for Canadian for the , in which he was a first-team regular. Pandiani returned to Spanish football in January 2018, signing for Tercera División club

until the end of the season. He made 11 appearances before his contract expired, and then joined

of the

, where he played only oncestarting in the 2–1 defeat away to Hiberniansbefore rejoining Real Avilés a year after first signing for them. Pandiani played regularly as Avilés finished in 14th place, and signed for another year. By mid-season, wages were in arrears, the team was shipping goals and defensive changes were needed. Pandiani was out of favour as well as suffering from a groin injury, and on the last day of the transfer window he moved on to another Tercera club, Navarro. He was only able to play four matches before the season was suspended because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

References

External links

Nico Pandiani
at La Preferente {{DEFAULTSORT:Pandiani, Nico 1994 births Living people Footballers from Montevideo Uruguayan men's footballers Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Men's association football defenders Villarreal CF players CD Atlético Baleares footballers Miramar Misiones players Marino de Luanco footballers Canadian Soccer Club players CD Masnou players Real Avilés Industrial CF footballers Hamrun Spartans F.C. players SD Navarro CF footballers Segunda División B players Uruguayan Primera División players Tercera División players Uruguayan Segunda División players Maltese Premier League players Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Malta