TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS: Report
Could 2019 be Ignacio Piatti’s last season in MLS?
The Montreal Impact superstar discussed his future in a call to an Argentinean radio program on Tuesday, raising the possibility that he could return to his former club San Lorenzo at the end of next year.
Piatti’s situation became a topic of conversation in his native land earlier in the day, when his former San Lorenzo teammate Leandro “Pipi” Romagnoli told the Olé publication that he’d invited Piatti back to Buenos Aires to take part in his testimonial in December, and suggested that Piatti might rejoin the club in a similar timeframe.
Piatti subsequently reached out to the “San Lorenzo de América” radio show to express his excitement at participating in the tribute to Romagnoli – and also clarify that he’d be playing for the Impact next year, and that any return to El Ciclon (“The Hurricane”), the club he helped win the 2014 Copa Libertadores and 2013 Primera Division championships, would take place after the end of the MLS campaign.
“I want to send a greeting to all the people of San Lorenzo and tell them that I am very happy because I will be in the farewell party of Pipi on Dec. 15. I thank him for having invited me,” said Piatti. “It makes me happy to go back to San Lorenzo, to the stadium that gave me so much joy, to meet again some friends that we were together with for two years, we had nice moments.
“I want to tell you that I still have one more year left here in Montreal,” he added. “I saw that there was talk that I would return now in December [of 2018], but no, I have one more year, so this would be in 2019, in December.”
A 2019 departure from Montreal would appear to require the consent of the Impact, who re-signed Piatti to a lucrative new contract in October of 2017 that reportedly makes him one of MLS's highest-paid players and runs through 2019 with a team option for 2020.
The team leader in both goals (14) and assists (13) this season, “Nacho” is one of the most accomplished players in Montreal history and remains pivotal to their hopes of reaching the Audi 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs. The Impact are locked in a tense race with D.C. United for the Eastern Conference’s sixth and final postseason berth and probably have to win their final two games, against Toronto and New England, to get in.
