MONTREAL — The Montreal Impact has agreed to terms with Argentine attacking midfielder Ignacio Piatti to become a designated player.
Piatti, 29, is to join the team in August after playing for Argentine side San Lorenzo de Almagro in the Copa Libertadores.
He will be Montreal’s second DP after striker Marco Di Vaio, who is expected to retire at the end of the season. He replaces midfielder Hernan Bernardello, a DP who left this week to join Cruz Azul in Mexico.
“We’re excited,” said Impact sporting director Nick De Santis, who has been working on landing Piatti for more than a year.
“When you go after a player in the prime of his career, who helped his team win a championship and lead them to the semifinals in the Copa Libertadores, for us it exciting.”
DeSantis said it was a long-term deal but declined to reveal Piatti’s salary or how many years the contract covers.
“His strengths are his ability to score important goals, his hunger to score goals, his ability to put defences on their heels, his ability to strike the ball with the right foot or the left,” said De Santis. “He gets in a good attacking positions inside the 18-yard box, and he’s a two-way player.”
The five-foot-11 Paitti scored 30 goals in more than 160 Argentine first division matches.
He has played for five clubs in Argentina as well as with St-Etienne in France in 2006 and Lecce in Italy from 2010 to 2012.
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