Piero Martín Hincapié Reyna (born 9 January 2002) is an Ecuadorian 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 ...

who plays as a centre-back for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

and the Ecuador national team.

Club career

Hincapié began playing football at the age of seven, initially for local clubs Escuela Refinería, Emelec and Barcelona. Aged ten, the defender moved to

Guayaquil , motto = Por Guayaquil Independiente en, For Independent Guayaquil , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Ecuador#South America , pushpin_re ...

with Norte América. After a spell with Deportivo Azogues, he joined

Independiente del Valle Club de Alto Rendimiento Especializado Independiente del Valle, known simply as Independiente del Valle, is a professional football club based in Sangolquí, Ecuador, that currently plays in the Ecuadorian Serie A. Founded in 1958, the club pla ...

in November 2016. Hincapié was promoted into their first-team in August 2019 for a

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

match with Mushuc Runa. He was selected to start and played the full duration of a narrow home defeat. In the subsequent

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

campaign, shortly after winning the U-20 Copa Libertadores, Hincapié made appearances off the bench against Universidad Católica and Macará. On 20 August 2020, Hincapié switched Ecuador for Argentina after agreeing a five-year contract with Primera División side Talleres; who paid $1,000,000 for 50% of his pass. In August 2021, Hincapié signed for the German

club

. He made his debut on 16 August, coming into the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

group stage match against

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as Leverkusen won 2–1. He scored his first goal for the club on 30 September, scoring the opening goal against Celtic in a 4–0 victory in the Europa League.

International career

Hincapié appeared for the Ecuador U15s in 2017. In 2019, Hincapié represented his country as captain at U17 level. He played seven times at the

South American U-17 Championship The South American U-17 Championship (; ) is a football competition held every two years for South American under-17 teams. The tournament was born in 1985 out of a need for a classification tournament for the newly created FIFA U-16 World Cup (no ...

in Peru, before featuring four times at the subsequent

FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fédération ...

in Brazil. He made his debut for

Ecuador national football team The Ecuador national football team ( es, Selección de fútbol de Ecuador) represents Ecuador in men's international football and is controlled by the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF). They joined FIFA in 1926 and CONMEBOL a year later. D ...

on 13 June 2021 in a 2021 Copa América game against Colombia. He started and played a full match as Ecuador lost 0–1.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Ecuador's goal tally first.''

Honours

;Independiente del Valle * U-20 Copa Libertadores:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hincapie, Piero 2002 births Living people Sportspeople from Esmeraldas, Ecuador Ecuadorian footballers Ecuador youth international footballers Ecuador international footballers Association football defenders Ecuadorian Serie A players Argentine Primera División players Bundesliga players C.S.D. Independiente del Valle footballers Talleres de Córdoba footballers Bayer 04 Leverkusen players 2021 Copa América players C.S. Norte América footballers Ecuadorian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Argentina Ecuadorian expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Expatriate footballers in Germany 2022 FIFA World Cup players