MONTREAL – The Montreal Impact announced on Tuesday that Argentine midfielder and Designated Player Ignacio Piatti has signed a contract extension with the club for a season and a half (18 months), with an option for 2020.
Named the Impact Most Valuable Player in 2015 and 2016 and selected to the MLS Best XI last season, Piatti, 32, has so far recorded 47 goals and 21 assists in 91 regular season games, including 88 starts, and 7,759 minutes. He has also registered five goals and three assists in eight starts in the MLS Cup Playoffs, helping the club reach the Eastern Conference Final in 2016.
After recording a brace against Portland last May 20, Piatti passed Marco Di Vaio to become the record goal scorer in MLS club history. He also ranks first in MLS club history with 11 game-winning goals, 11 goals on penalty, 244 shots and 114 shots on goal, second with nine game-winning assists, third for most starts and most minutes played, tied for third for most assists and in fifth place for most games played.
During his four seasons in MLS, he has been selected once as MLS Player of the Month, twice as MLS Player of the Week, 14 times to the MLSsoccer.com Team of the Week and 27 times as the Impact Player of the Game. He has also won the MLS Goal of the Week six times and has recorded 11 multi-goal games.
The Argentine Designated Player was selected and played in Major League Soccer’s last two All-Star Games, in San Jose, in 2016, and in Chicago, earlier this year.
This season, he currently leads the Impact with 17 goals, while adding six assists in 27 games, including 25 starts, and 2,278 minutes. He is tied for first in MLS with five multi-goal games, tied for third with four penalty goals, fifth with 17 goals and 10th with 36 shots on goal. He also recorded a brace in three starts in the Canadian Championship.
On August 27 against Toronto, Piatti tied an old club record (first and second divisions) by scoring at least a goal in a fifth consecutive game. He tied previous marks set by Grant Needham in 1993 and Lloyd Barker in 1995.
In continental competition, Piatti started all six games in the 2014/15 CONCACAF Champions League Championship Stage and helped the team reach the final against Mexican giant Club América, recording three goals and two assists in 526 minutes played. He scored important goals in the first leg of the semifinals against L.D. Alajuelense and in the first leg of the final against Club América at Estadio Azteca, after earning two assists in two Group Stage starts.
Piatti became the Impact’s third Designated Player in club history on July 2, 2014, after playing with San Lorenzo and Independiente in Argentina, AS Saint-Etienne in France and Lecce in Italy.
Transaction: Designated Player and midfielder Ignacio Piatti signs a contract extension with the club for a season and a half (18 months), with an option for 2020.
