Nicolás Tagliafico


Nicolás Alejandro Tagliafico is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a left back for Eredivisie club Ajax.

Club career

Banfield

Tagliafico made his professional debut for Banfield on a 2−1 away victory against Tigre for the fifth fixture of the 2011 Clausura, coming on as a substitute on the 72nd minute. Due to Marcelo Bustamante's ban, he was a starter the following game, a 2−2 draw with Huracán. In 2012, Tagliafico signed a one-year loan deal with Spanish club Real Murcia.

Independiente

In 2015, he made the move to Independiente for an undisclosed transfer fee and made his professional debut for the club during a 3−2 away win at Newell's Old Boys. Tagliafico would end up captaining the team that won the 2017 Copa Sudamericana.

Ajax

On 5 January 2018, Tagliafico made the move to Ajax for a fee of £4 million and made his professional debut for the club during a 2−0 home win against Feyenoord on 21 January 2018 in the Klassieker.

International career

Tagliafico has played in all the youth categories of the Argentine national team: under-15, under-17 and under-20. Tagliafico impressed for the Argentina national under-20 football team at the 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Colombia; however, he missed Argentina's final kick in the quarter-final penalty shoot-out against Portugal, meaning Argentina exited that competition 5–4 on penalties.
In May 2018, he was named in Argentina's final 23 man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. He also played the 2019 Copa América, and took with Argentina the third place, through a 2–1 victory over Chile in the third-place match.

Style of play

He is noted for his "lung-busting stamina, excellent technique and continuous enterprise". As a result of his skills, as well as his playing position and club, Tagliafico has been compared to the Internazionale and Argentina full-back Javier Zanetti, formerly also of Banfield.

Career statistics

International

Honours

Club

Independiente
Ajax
Argentina