Guillaume Pianelli

Guillaume Pianelli-Balisoni (born 1 May 1998) is a French soccer player who plays as a defender.

Early life Pianelli was a product of the SC Bastia system, where he began playing at age 5, remaining there for his entire youth career, eventually training with the first team, only leaving the club when they began to experience financial difficulties.

University career In 2019, he moved to Canada to attend the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, where he played for the men's soccer team, winning the U Sports men's soccer championship in his first year, where he was named to the all-tournament team. Ahead of the 2022 season, he was named the team captain. Pianelli was named a U Sports First Team All-Canadian in 2022 and an RSEQ All-Star in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

Club career In 2016, he debuted with SC Bastia II in the fifth tier Championnat de France Amateur 2. He had been training with the first team at the time as well, when the club went bankrupt.

In 2020, he began playing for Celtix du Haut-Richelieu in the Première ligue de soccer du Québec, where he was working as a youth coach. In February, he signed with Forge ahead of their CONCACAF Champions League matches, but did not remain with the club afterwards on a CPL contract as their roster was full.

He spent the 2022 season in the PLSQ with Celtix and in the 2023 pre-season, he played on the PLSQ all-star team in an exhibition match again CF Montréal.

At the 2023 CPL–U Sports Draft, he was selected in the first round (fifth overall) by Valour FC. In March 2023, he signed a U Sports contract with the club, which allows him to maintain his university eligibility.

Career statistics