Facundo Pellistri Rebollo (; born 20 December 2001) is a Uruguayan 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 le ...

who plays as a winger for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and the Uruguay national team. Born in

Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, Pellistri is a graduate of Peñarol's youth system. He made 37 first-team appearances for the club and was named in the

Uruguayan Primera División The Liga Profesional de Primera División (American Spanish , en, First Division Professional League, local: , ''First Division''), named "Torneo Uruguayo Copa Coca-Cola" for sponsorship reasons, is the highest professional Association football, ...

Team of the Season in 2019. He transferred to Manchester United in October 2020, for a fee of £9 million. Since joining United, he has had two loan spells at Spanish club Alavés, where he made 35 appearances in total. Pellistri represented Uruguay at under-16 level, before making his senior international debut in January 2022. He played for Uruguay at the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

Early life and education

Pellistri was born in

to a family of Spanish and Italian origin. He also holds a

Spanish passport Spanish passports ( es, Pasaporte español) are issued to Spanish citizens with right of abode in the Iberian mainland, Ceuta, Melilla, Balearic Islands and Canary Islands, for the purpose of travel outside Spain. Every Spanish citizen is also a ...

since his father's grandmother was from

A Coruña A Coruña (; es, La Coruña ; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. A Coruña is the most populated city in Galicia and the second most populated municipality in the autonomous community and s ...

in Galicia. The lead singer of Uruguayan rock band

La Vela Puerca La Vela Puerca is a Uruguayan rock band formed in Montevideo, Uruguay, in December 1995. Its founders and current members are Sebastián Teysera (lead vocals, frontman and main songwriter), Sebastián Cebreiro (vocals, songwriter), Nicolás Lieut ...

, Sebastián Teysera, is Pellistri's godfather. Pellistri is the son of an accountant. He was privately educated at two institutions in the

Pocitos :''Pocitos is also the colloquial name for the city of Salvador Mazza, Salta Province, Argentina'' Pocitos is an upscale beach ''barrio'' (neighbourhood or district) in Uruguay's capital city, Montevideo. Location This area is located along the ba ...

neighbourhood: St Brendan's School for his early years, where he first learned English, and then Ivy Thomas Memorial School through the fourth grade of high school. His strongest subject at school was

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. In 2019, Pellistri graduated from a pre-architectural study program.

Club career

Peñarol

Pellistri is a youth academy graduate of Peñarol, who he joined in 2012, having previously played youth football for La Picada and

River Plate Montevideo A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wa ...

. He made his professional debut on 11 August 2019, in Peñarol's 2–2 draw against

Defensor Sporting Defensor Sporting Club is a sports club based in Montevideo, Uruguay. Founded in 1913, Defensor has several sports sections, with football and basketball being the most important and the ones in which the club has achieved significant achievemen ...

. He scored his first goal on 6 November 2019, in a 3–1 win against Cerro. For his performances in his debut season in the

, he was named in the Equipo Ideal del Campeonato Uruguayo (Ideal Team of the Uruguayan Championship) in December 2019.

Manchester United

Pellistri joined Manchester United on 5 October 2020, for a reported transfer fee of £9 million, on a five-year contract.

Diego Forlan Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''. E ...

, who was then managing Peñarol, endorsed Pellistri in a conversation with Manchester United manager and former teammate Ole Gunnar Solskjær, comparing the young player to

Ryan Giggs Ryan Joseph Giggs (né Wilson; 29 November 1973) is a Welsh association football, football coach and former player. Regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, Giggs played his List of one-club men in association football, entir ...

and emphasising his ability to speak English. His first pre-season goal was on 18 July 2021, against Derby County, in a 2–1 away win at Pride Park. On 31 January 2021, Pellistri joined

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually abbreviated to Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the ...

on loan for the remainder of the season. He returned to United to play in their summer pre-season matches, before going back on loan to Alavés in August for the 2021–22 season. Pellistri made his competitive debut for Manchester United on 10 January 2023, coming on as a substitute and assisting the second goal in a 3–0

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

win over

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

. Pellistri made his Premier League debut on 8 February 2023, coming on as a substitute in a 2–2 draw against Leeds United.

International career

Pellistri is a former Uruguayan youth international, having made two appearances at under-16 level in 2017. He was called up to the senior team for the first time on 7 January 2022, for the World Cup qualifying matches against

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. He made his full international debut on 27 January, in a 1–0 away win against Paraguay. Pellistri was included in the

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

for the

. He started and played for 88 minutes in Uruguay's first game of the tournament, against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, before being replaced by

Guillermo Varela Guillermo Varela Olivera (; born 24 March 1993) is a Uruguayan professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Defender (association football)#Full-back, right-back for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Clube de Regatas do Flameng ...

Style of play

A winger, Pellistri has been praised highly for his agility, versatility, dribbling skills, technique, and strategic vision on the field.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Individual *

Team of the Year:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Manchester United website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pellistri, Facundo 2001 births Living people Footballers from Montevideo Association football wingers Peñarol players Manchester United F.C. players Deportivo Alavés players Uruguayan Primera División players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Uruguayan footballers Uruguay international footballers Uruguayan expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Spain Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in England Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Uruguayan people of Spanish descent Uruguayan people of Italian descent People educated at Ivy Thomas Memorial School