Maximiliano Eduardo Meza (born 15 December 1992) is an Argentine 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 lea ...

who plays as a winger for River Plate.

Club career

Gimnasia

Meza, off a stint with Club Cambá Porá, was promoted into Gimnasia y Esgrima's first-team in 2012 and subsequently made his professional debut on 10 December against

Deportivo Merlo Club Social y Deportivo Merlo (usually known simply as Deportivo Merlo) is an Argentinean football club located in Merlo, Buenos Aires. The team currently plays in Primera B Metropolitana, the third division of the Argentine football league system ...

in the

Primera B Nacional Primera Nacional (usually called simply Nacional B, (English "National B Division"), and known as Primera B Nacional until the 2019–20 season) is the second division of the Argentine football league system. The competition is made up of 38 team ...

, he made fourteen league appearances in total in Gimansia's promotion-winning season of

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. In the following season, Meza became a regular for the club as he made thirty-six appearances and scored five goals; the first five goals of his career. Over the next three league campaigns he made fifty-three appearances in all competitions while scoring seven goals, the last coming versus Colón on 23 May 2016.

Independiente

On 18 September 2016, a week after making his 100th league appearance for Gimnasia, he left the club to sign for fellow Primera División club Independiente. His Independiente debut came in a

2016 Copa Sudamericana The 2016 Copa Sudamericana () was the 15th edition of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's secondary club association football, football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. The 2016 Copa Sudamericana Finals, finals were originally to be played be ...

Round of 16 match against Brazilian side Chapecoense on 22 September. During the 2017–18 season, Meza made nine appearances and scored three goals in Independiente's

2017 Copa Sudamericana The 2017 Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana was the 16th edition of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana (also referred to as the ''Copa Sudamericana'', or ), South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. Argentinian club Independiente ...

winning campaign.

Monterrey

In January 2019, Meza moved abroad and joined Mexican club

Monterrey Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...

; signing a five-year contract. He was assigned shirt number 32. He made his Monterrey debut on 13 January 2019 against León, before scoring his first goal in his second appearance on 20 January versus

Querétaro Querétaro, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Querétaro, 18 municipalities. Its capital city is Querétaro Cit ...

. Later that year, Meza appeared eight times as the club won the

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, ...

; coming off the bench in both legs of the final against

Tigres UANL Club Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, abbreviated as Tigres UANL and simply known as Tigres or internationally as Tigres de México, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in the Monterrey metropo ...

. He was later part of the squads that won the 2019–20 Apertura and

2019–20 Copa MX The 2019–20 Copa MX was the 82nd staging of the Copa MX, the 54th staging in the professional era and the fifteenth tournament played since the 1996–97 edition. The tournament started on 30 July 2019 and ended on 4 November 2020. It marked ...

. Meza also appeared in three matches and scored once, versus Al Hilal, at the

2019 FIFA Club World Cup The 2019 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2019 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 16th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club association football, fo ...

River Plate

In August 2024, Meza returned to Argentina and joined River Plate.

International career

In March 2018, Meza was called up to the senior squad for friendlies with

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

later that month. He made his debut on 27 March against Spain, playing the full ninety minutes of a 6–1 defeat at the Wanda Metropolitano. Meza was selected in Argentina's official squad for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

on 21 May, having previously made the preliminary squad on 14 May. He made his first World Cup appearance on 16 June versus

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. He was part of a team that won the friendly Adidas Cup against Mexico in November 2018 He made

Lionel Scaloni Lionel Sebastián Scaloni (, ; born 16 May 1978) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of the Argentina national team. Under his leadership, Argentina achieved the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Scalon ...

's initial forty-man squad for the

2019 Copa América The 2019 Copa América was the 46th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. It was held in Brazil and took place between 14 June and 7 Ju ...

, but was removed for the final tournament.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Independiente *

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Suruga Bank Championship The J.League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship was an annual intercontinental football match held in Japan, contested by the reigning champions of the J.League Cup and the Copa Sudamericana. The tournament was previously officially called the ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Monterrey *

Liga MX Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divis ...

: Apertura 2019 *

Copa MX Copa MX, also known as Copa Corona MX for sponsorship reasons, was an association football competition in Mexico and the domestic cup tournament for clubs at the highest and second levels of Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Copa ...

: 2019–20 *

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Individual *

Team of the Tournament:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Meza, Maximiliano 1992 births Copa Sudamericana–winning players Living people Footballers from Corrientes Province Argentine men's footballers Argentina men's international footballers 2018 FIFA World Cup players Men's association football midfielders Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Argentine Primera División players Primera Nacional players Liga MX players Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata footballers Club Atlético Independiente footballers C.F. Monterrey players CONCACAF Champions Cup–winning players 21st-century Argentine sportsmen Club Atlético River Plate footballers