Nicolás Tagliafico

Nicolás Alejandro Tagliafico (born 31 August 1992) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a left-back for the Ligue 1 club Lyon and the Argentina national team. He was a member of the Argentina team that won the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Early life
Of Italian origins, his grandparents are from the city of Genoa on the paternal side and Calabrian on the maternal side; he also has Italian citizenship.

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. Since then he has played over 100 league games for the club and scored 7 league goals and became a starter for the team in 2019.

Lyon
On 23 July 2022, he joined Ligue 1 club Lyon on a three-year deal until June 2025, for €4.2 million

International career
Tagliafico has played in all the youth categories of the Argentina 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 (Cartagena, 13 August 2011).

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.

In June 2021, he was included in Lionel Scaloni's final Argentina 28-man squad for the 2021 Copa América.

He is the only foreign player to became champion at club level (Independiente, Sudamericana 2017) and at international level (Argentina, Copa América 2021) at the Maracaná stadium.

In November 2022, he was named in Argentina's final 26-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar by Scaloni. Tagliafico was part of the starting line-up in the final against France, where Argentina won the World Cup by a score of 4–2 on penalties.

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, and nationality, and striking visual resemblance Tagliafico has been compared to the Internazionale and Argentina full-back Javier Zanetti, formerly also of Banfield.

International

 * Scores and results list Argentina's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Tagliafico goal.

Honours
Independiente
 * Copa Sudamericana: 2017

Ajax
 * Eredivisie: 2018–19, 2020–21, 2021–22
 * KNVB Cup: 2018–19, 2020–21

Lyon
 * Coupe de France runner-up: 2023–24

Argentina
 * FIFA World Cup: 2022
 * Copa América: 2021, 2024
 * CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions: 2022

Individual
 * South American Team of the Year: 2017
 * Eredivisie Player of the Month: November 2018