Facundo Pellistri

Facundo Pellistri Rebollo (Spanish pronunciation: [faˈkundo peˈlistɾi]; born 20 December 2001) is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a right winger for Greek Super League club Panathinaikos and the Uruguay national team.
Born in Montevideo, 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 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 and the 2024 Copa América.
Pellistri was born on 20 December 2001 in the capital city of Montevideo to a family of Spanish and Italian descent. His father, Marcelo, is an accountant and his mother, Lucía (née Rebollo), is a pediatrician. Along with his native Uruguayan passport, Pellistri also holds a Spanish passport through his father's grandmother, a native of the municipality of A Coruña in Galicia. The lead singer of Uruguayan rock band La Vela Puerca, Sebastián Teysera, is Pellistri's godfather.
Pellistri was privately educated at two institutions in the Pocitos neighbourhood: St Brendan's School for his early years, where he first learned English, and then Ivy Thomas Memorial School for high school. His strongest subject at school was mathematics. In 2019, Pellistri graduated from a pre-architectural study program.
Facundo began his football career at the age of 4 at La Picada, a baby football club. Later, he had a brief stint with River Plate in AUFI, and since 2012, he has been playing in the youth divisions of Peñarol, a club he supports.
His first three years at Peñarol were in AUFI. In 2015, he began to be part of the club's youth teams, starting with the U-14. In the Juveniles, he played 115 matches and scored 49 goals. He was part of the U-14, U-15, U-16, and U-17 teams.
In 2017, Pellistri won his first Uruguayan championship, obtaining the title in U-16 after defeating Defensor Sporting 2-1 in the tournament final. That same year, he scored his first classic goal. The match corresponded to the 4th round of the Clausura Tournament, and near the end, he scored the goal that sealed the final result of the match (2-1). This match against Nacional was played at the Estadio Centenario, a national historic monument, marking his first official game at that venue.
In 2018, the year in which Facundo was part of the U-17 team, he was called up for the first time to train with the main squad of the carbonero, led by Diego López, to carry out the mid-year preseason in the department of Colonia. At that time, the player was 16 years old and experiencing his first involvement with the main squad.
In 2019, the player alternated between the main squad and the reserves, where he played 13 matches. Finally, on August 11, 2019, he made his first division debut. He came on in the 89th minute against Defensor Sporting at the Estadio Luis Franzini, during the 4th round of the Torneo Intermedio 2019. Although he had relatively few minutes on the field, in his first play, he managed to excite the fans. The match ended in a 2-2 draw.
From then on, Facundo began to be more frequently considered for the main squad. On November 6, 2019, he scored his first official goal in the first division, in a 3-1 victory against Cerro during the 10th round of the Torneo Clausura 2019, held at the Estadio Luis Tróccoli. Since his debut, he started gaining more playing time and quickly ignited great excitement among Peñarol fans, to the point that just a few months after his debut, he was selected through various social media platforms of the AUF as the public's player of the year 2019. He was also distinguished as a member of the ideal team of the 2019 Uruguayan Championship, having participated in only 50% of the year's matches.
But he didn't just excite and attract the interest of fans. Shortly after becoming a major revelation in the local scene, rumors began to surface from major global institutions. Boca Juniors, Atlético de Madrid, Arsenal, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Manchester City were some of the clubs that reportedly showed interest in the player. In December 2019, Juan Román Riquelme, vice president of Boca Juniors and former player of the club, publicly praised the player and stated that "there are not many players like him anymore".
In February 2020, his contract with Peñarol was renewed until 2022, which included a release clause of 15 million dollars, a historic and significant amount for the institution.
Pellistri joined Manchester United on 5 October 2020, for a reported transfer fee of £9 million, on a five-year contract. Diego Forlán, 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 and emphasizing 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 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 win over Charlton Athletic. Pellistri made his Premier League debut on 8 February 2023, coming on as a substitute in a 2–2 draw against Leeds United. On 17 March 2023, Pellistri made his first senior start for United, against Real Betis in the UEFA Europa League. On 20 September 2023, Pellistri made his UEFA Champions League debut against Bayern Munich, in the group stage, at Allianz Arena.
On 31 January 2024, Pellistri joined Granada on a loan deal until the end of the season. On 11 February, Pellistri netted his first goal for Granada in a La Liga game against Barcelona, which ended in a 3–3 stalemate.
On 21 August 2024, Pellistri signed for Super League Greece club Panathinaikos on a four-year deal. The fee was a reported €6 million (£5.1 million) with up to €2 million in performance based add-ons, with Manchester United also holding a 45% sell-on clause as well as a three-year buy-back option.
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 and Venezuela. He made his full international debut on 27 January, in a 1–0 away win against Paraguay.
Pellistri was included in the squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He started and played for 88 minutes in Uruguay's first game of the tournament, against South Korea, before being replaced by Guillermo Varela. Pellistri scored his first international goal for Uruguay against Mexico in a friendly match on 5 June 2024 at Empower Field at Mile High in the United States He also contributed an assist for Darwin Núñez in his hat-trick for a 4-0 win.
A winger, Pellistri has been praised highly for his agility, versatility, dribbling skills, technique, and strategic vision on the field. He has received praise from world-class footballers such as Diego Forlan and Juan Román Riquelme.
Manchester United
Uruguay
Individual