MONTREAL -
The Montreal Impact announced on Wednesday that Argentine midfielder Ignacio Piatti has been named the club's Most Valuable Player in 2018, receiving the Giuseppe Saputo Trophy for the fourth consecutive season, while American goalkeeper Evan Bush was named Defensive player of the year.
In his fifth season with the Impact, Piatti was the club's top scorer with 16 goals and earned the most assists with 13, appearing in 32 regular season games, all starts, for a total of 2,821 minutes played. He also finished the season tied for second in MLS with one hat-trick, tied for third with five game-winning assists and four penalty-kick goals, sixth with 16 goals and 78 fouls suffered, tied for seventh with three multi-goal games and tied for 10th with 13 assists. He also played two Canadian Championship games.
Throughout the regular season, Piatti set several personal records with the Impact, including 100 starts, 100 games played, and 10,000 career minutes in MLS. He passed Patrice Bernier for most career assists and most game-winning assists in club history in MLS, before surpassing Mauro Biello in first place in club history, in the first and second divisions, for most assists in one season, after setting the new MLS club record. He reached 50 career regular season goals in MLS on April 21 against LAFC, while also scoring his first career hat-trick in MLS during the same game.
He also surpassed Eduardo Sebrango for second place in club history, in the first and second divisions, with 63 career regular season goals.
Piatti was named MLS Player of the Week twice, in weeks 10 and 16, and was selected seven times on the MLSsoccer.com Team of the Week. He was also nominated once for the MLS Goal of the Week and was selected four times as the Videotron player of the game by the supporters.
The Argentine once again featured in the MLS All-Star Game for a third consecutive year, this time in Atlanta on August 1, against Italian club Juventus.
Giuseppe Saputo Trophy recipients (MLS):
2018: Ignacio Piatti
2017: Ignacio Piatti
2016: Ignacio Piatti
2015: Ignacio Piatti
2014: Andrés Romero
2013: Marco Di Vaio
2012: Patrice Bernier
