Facundo Pellistri

Peñarol

Pellistri began his football career at the age of four at La Picada, a baby football club. Later, he had a brief stint with River Plate in AUFI; from 2012, he played 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…

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. On 31 May 2026, Pellistri was named in Uruguay's 26-man squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

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.

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 has 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.