Guillaume Pianelli-Balisoni (born 1 May 1998) is a French

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who plays as a defender.

Early life

Pianelli was a product of the SC Bastia system, where he began playing at age 5, remaining there for his entire youth career, eventually training with the first team, only leaving the club when they began to experience financial difficulties.

University career

In 2019, he moved to Canada to attend the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, where he played for the men's soccer team, winning the U Sports men's soccer championship in his first year, where he was named to the all-tournament team. Ahead of the 2022 season, he was named the team captain. Pianelli was named a U Sports First Team All-Canadian in 2022 and an RSEQ All-Star in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

Club career

In 2016, he debuted with SC Bastia II in the fifth tier

Championnat de France Amateur 2 The Championnat National 3, commonly referred to as simply National 3 and formerly known as Championnat de France Amateur 2, is a football league competition. The league serves as the fifth division of the French football league system behind ...

. He had been training with the first team at the time as well, when the club went bankrupt. He was contacted by neighbouring club AC Ajaccio, but chose to remain with Bastia, whose first team was demoted to the new fifth tier

2017–18 Championnat National 3 The 2017–18 Championnat National 3 is the first season of the fifth tier in the French football league system in its current format. The competition is contested by 171 clubs split geographically across 12 groups of 14 teams, 1 group of 15 team ...

, taking the place of the reserve side, in order to retain his status as an amateur. In 2018, he joined EF Bastia in the same division. In 2020, he began playing for

Celtix du Haut-Richelieu Celtix du Haut-Richelieu is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec that plays in the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec in the third tier of Canadian soccer, since 2020. History The club was origina ...

in the Première ligue de soccer du Québec, where he was working as a youth coach. At the

2022 CPL–U Sports Draft The 2022 CPL–U Sports Draft was the fourth annual CPL–U Sports Draft. Eight Canadian Premier League (CPL) teams selected 16 eligible U Sports soccer players in total, when the draft was held on January 20, 2022. Format Players can be selecte ...

, he was selected seventh overall by Forge FC, In February, he signed with Forge ahead of their

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...

matches, but did not remain with the club afterwards on a CPL contract as their roster was full. He spent the 2022 season in the PLSQ with Celtix and in the 2023 pre-season, he played on the PLSQ all-star team in an exhibition match again

CF Montréal CF Montréal is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Montréal, Québec, Canada. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1992 as the Montreal Impact (french: Impact de Montréal, links=no), ...

. At the

2023 CPL–U Sports Draft The 2023 CPL–U Sports Draft was the fifth annual CPL–U Sports Draft. Canadian Premier League (CPL) teams selected 16 eligible U Sports soccer players to be invited to their respective preseason camps with the opportunity to earn developmental ...

, he was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by Valour FC. In March 2023, he signed a U Sports contract with the club, which allows him to maintain his university eligibility.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pianelli, Guillaume 1998 births Living people Footballers from Bastia French men's footballers Men's association football defenders SC Bastia players ÉF Bastia players Forge FC players Valour FC players Championnat National 3 players Ligue1 Québec players Canadian Premier League players Forge FC draft picks Valour FC draft picks French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada French expatriate sportspeople in Canada Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières alumni