Gianluca Prestianni
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gianluca Prestianni Gross[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 31 January 2006[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Ciudadela, Buenos Aires, Argentina | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.66 m (5 ft 5 in)[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Winger | ||||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||||
Current team | Benfica | ||||||||||||||||
| Number | 25 | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| Vélez Sarsfield | |||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 2022–2024 | Vélez Sarsfield | 36 | (2) | ||||||||||||||
| 2024– | Benfica B | 11 | (2) | ||||||||||||||
| 2024– | Benfica | 27 | (2) | ||||||||||||||
| International career‡ | |||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | Argentina U17 | 8 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 2025– | Argentina U20 | 6 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2025– | Argentina | 1 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 22:37, 13 February 2025 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals as of 23:04, 14 November 2025 (UTC) | |||||||||||||||||
Gianluca Prestianni Gross (born 31 January 2006) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a winger for Primeira Liga club Benfica and the Argentina national team.[2]
Vélez Sarsfield
On 24 May 2022, Prestianni made his professional debut for Vélez Sarsfield in the Copa Libertadores in a match against Estudiantes.[3][4] On 11 October 2023, he was named by the British newspaper The Guardian as one of the best players born in 2006 worldwide.[5]
Benfica
On 22 December 2023, Vélez announced that they had reached an agreement with Portuguese club Benfica for the sale of Prestianni. The transfer fee was reported to be €9 million, with up to €2 million in add-ons, and involved 85% of his economic rights. However, the contract was set to be completed only after Prestianni's eighteenth birthday on 31 January 2024.[6] Benfica also officially announced the transfer, with Prestianni signing a contract until 2029.[2] His release clause was reportedly set at €100 million.[7]
He initially played for Benfica B in the Liga Portugal 2.[8] On 17 May 2024, he made his senior debut as a substitute in a 1–1 away draw against Rio Ave.[9] He scored his first goal for the club in a 5–0 away win over Tirsense in the Taça de Portugal semi-final on 9 April 2025.[10]
International career
Prestianni has represented Argentina at under-17 level.[11] In March 2023, TNT Sports reported that Roberto Mancini had an interest in contacting Prestianni to join the Italy national football team, weeks after a similar move was successfully completed for fellow Italian–Argentine Mateo Retegui.[12][13]
In November 2025, Prestianni received his first call-up for the Argentina senior team for a friendly match against Angola.[14] He debuted in the match against Angola on 14 November.[15]
Personal life
Born and raised in Argentina, Prestianni is of Italian descent.[16]
Allegations of racism and homophobia
On 17 February 2026, the Champions League knockout phase play-offs tie game between Benfica and Real Madrid was temporarily halted for 10 minutes, after Real Madrid player Vinícius Júnior alleged that Prestianni had directed racist remarks toward him.[17] Vinícius scored and celebrated by the corner flag. He was subsequently booked for excessive celebration. A confrontation between players followed.[18] During this confrontation, Prestianni covered his mouth with his shirt and allegedly said "mono" ("monkey" in Spanish) on five occasions.[19] Following the altercation Vinícius approached match referee François Letexier and reported the incident, with Letexier pausing the game.[20] It eventually resumed and finished in a 1–0 home defeat, with Prestianni stating post-match that Vinícius had "regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard."[21] UEFA announced the day after the incident they were opening an investigation to "investigate allegations of discriminatory behaviour."[22]
On 23 February, UEFA provisionally suspended Prestianni for Benfica's second leg against Real Madrid two days later. Prestianni reportedly told UEFA that he had not said a racial remark against Vinícius, but instead had said an "anti-gay" slur. Prestianni faces up to a ten match suspension if he is found guilty by UEFA.[23] Benfica president Rui Costa defended Prestianni, stating that "I guarantee that he is not a racist player, otherwise he wouldn’t represent Benfica" and said that the club would "stand by Prestianni".[24] Benfica manager José Mourinho, whose initial response to the allegations were criticized, said that if Prestianni was found guilty by UEFA that his career playing for him and at the club would be "over".[25][26]
Prestianni later spoke out about the incident in an interview with Telefe, saying that Real Madrid players had called him racist to throw him off his game and that he had instead called Vinícius "cagón" ("coward" in Spanish) and "maricón" ("faggot" in Spanish) during their confrontation. Prestianni said that calling Vinícius those words was "a normal insult" for Argentinians and also that calling him homophobic "was going too far" and that people wanted to make "drama out of things that weren’t true".[27]
On 24 April 2026, UEFA handed Prestianni a six-match ban for homophobic conduct toward Vinícius Júnior. The sanction was partly suspended, with three matches deferred for a two-year probationary period and one already served, leaving him to serve two further matches unless he reoffended.[28]