Gonzalo Petit is the latest young talent to emerge from Nacional's youth divisions, and without doubt is the club's biggest hope for a future sale. Our Uruguayan football expert Juan Lauz is here to explain why.
Born in September 2006, the young Uruguayan is a central forward with a unique physical build. Standing at 1.89m tall and weighing just 74kg, this has led to close scrutiny since his professional debut. However, he’s already proving his doubters wrong.
The young player made his Primera División debut on July 13 of this year, in a 6-0 victory against Danubio, where he also scored his first professional goal.
Since then, he has played 10+ matches with Nacional, accumulating over 400 minutes on the field - scoring four goals - including one in the final of the Torneo Intermedio against Peñarol, Nacional's arch rival.
With that goal, he became the second youngest player in the club's history to score in a match of this significance.
To understand how special Petit is, it's important to highlight that he is the first player of his age to make an official debut for Nacional since Nicolás López in 2011 - the first in 13 years.
The number 9 with the soul of a midfielder
His youth coach, Santiago Espasandín, once said: "Gonzalo has been playing as a centre forward, but is always very involved in the game. We placed him as an interior midfielder, and he really thrived in that role."
Gonzalo is perhaps the most unusual number 9 to emerge in recent years in Uruguay.
He is not a forward who attacks deep spaces like Darwin Nuñez, nor does he thrive on layoffs and link-up play, sharing the wing as Luciano Rodriguez used to do at Liverpool.
He is, in every sense of the word, a forward who drops back into the play, and within him lies the soul of a midfielder.
The sequence of his goal in the final against Peñarol illustrates this perfectly.
Before the moment shown in figure 1, Petit engages in a physical duel with Peñarol's central defender in the offensive line.
The young player decides to drop back to the base, helping with the initial passes (figure 1), dragging the defender along with him.
The play would end up unfolding to Petit's rhythm. He touches the ball and moves laterally, shifting his position and clearing a line of pressure.
It all culminates with the young player at the edge of the box (figure 2), having advanced from deep in the midfield area, and punishing the opponent with a precise shot from outside the area.
Tall, slim, and elegant
That's Gonzalo Petit in a nutshell. Although his coaches see him as a potential attacking midfielder between the lines, someone who reaches the goal through aggressive, deep central runs – a role he's played for entire seasons in the youth divisions.
However, he is a natural centre forward with the peculiar ability to be comfortable across all three areas of the field, and the youngster plays with a constant need to be involved in the play.
Although he has played as an attacking midfielder, enganche, or interior midfielder in the youth divisions, Nacional's coach, Martín Lasarte, has most often used him as a centre forward in his usual 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation (depending on the positioning of the third midfielder).
His first touches are simply excellent, allowing him to operate in congested areas, including tight spaces, and in situations where his right-footed profile doesn't favor him for turning and creating play in the interior.
In these situations, his waist flexibility is striking despite his height, allowing him to pivot quickly and not lose a second when dropping back on the field. In the case of figure 4 (immediately following figure 3), he makes a dangerous through pass.
However, beyond the fact that his technical finesse allows him to create decisive actions, whether it's the final pass or shot, it's his body language and off-the-ball movements that give him a special aura: he is capable of building entire plays on his own.
He is, potentially, a centre forward with the ability to function as an entire attacking system. His various roles in midfield positions have developed his spatial awareness: dropping into the second line; horizontal movements along the wide channels – the wing or flank; quick touches followed by aggressive runs into depth.
Or, as we saw in his goal in the Clásico against Peñarol, he can drop back into midfield and receive directly as the first passer.
A finisher with... pause
Petit is, unlike the profiles we mentioned such as Darwin (a natural #9) and Luciano Rodríguez (a versatile attacker but with greater hunger for deep spaces), a forward who loves to "get into trouble" and prefers to drop back rather than arrive in the box.
And let his technical sensitivity not overshadow the clinical finisher; for example, his first goal in the Primera División is accompanied by one, even two deceptive movements: first, he appears on the defender's blind side, feinting a run to the near post, before punishing the opponent with a strike to the far side.
Petit signed his first professional contract earlier this year, valid until December 2026, appears as one of the great hopes for both Nacional and Uruguay in the future.
Likely to be called up for the upcoming U-20 South American Championship to be held between January and February in Colombia, he emerges as one of the potential leaders of his national team, benefiting from his age advantage.
The '9' midfielder who, sooner rather than later, will certainly be on the radar of several European clubs.
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