Report: SKC made offer on Argentinian defender

A report out of Argentina indicates that Sporting Kansas City has made an offer on center back Lautaro Gianetti. The 27-yer-old Argentinian has spent his entire career with Vélez Sarsfield and has made over 100 appearances with the club and was their captain.

Hat tip to Daniel Sperry for being the first in the Kansas City area for finding this report from people who cover Vélez Sarsfield.

Vélez Sarsfield is one of the more consistently good teams in Argentina and Giannetti helped lead the team to qualify for the last two Copa Sudamericana competitions. He was managed by Gabriel Heinze until last December when he was hired by Atlanta United.

Sporting KC reportedly made a two million dollar bid for him in December of 2019 that was rejected. Galatasaray also made an attempt for Gianetti in early 2020 but it was reported that Vélez Sarsfield was asking for something closer to four million at the time.

With the pandemic there is some reason to speculate that the club might accept a lower offer for him to bring in revenue. Gianetti’s contract appears to run through June of 2022 so he is not close to leaving on a free but if he is looking for a move the closer it gets to the end of his contract the more likely they will accept an offer.

Former Sporting KC defender Emiliano Amor came to Kansas City on loan from Vélez Sarsfield but SKC returned the center back early after some questions on effort in a bad loss. Amor could be Gianntti’s replacement if he did come to Kansas City.

With the addition of Nicolas Isimat-Mirin this week, Sporting KC currently has four natural center backs on the roster including, Andreu Fontas, Roberto Puncec and Graham Smith. If this offer is still current and legit and if Sporting KC is successful, Gianetti would jump to the top of the depth chart pretty quickly.

Giannetti style?

Various sources indicate he is a good passer, mostly in the short range and watching any highlight clip of Gianetti shows an aggressive tackling style combined with well positioned defending.

Good passing is a must in a Peter Vermes led team of course but speedy recovery and game saving tackles has been in short supply since Ike Opara went to Minnesota United prior to the 2019 season.

Here is a couple highlight videos to check out.

As always, let us know what you think of the possibility of SKC acquiring Giannetti.

And possibly the biggest question, is there one N or two in Giannetti? It is spelled both ways in different places, sometimes even on the same site.