PROFILE | Andrei Girotto: One of Ligue 1’s least fashionable players remains one of it’s best | OneFootball

This profile is taken from the 2022 GFFN 100, Get Football’s leading publication to be released at the end of the month, counting down French football’s 100 best players in 2022.

The spendthrift ways of FC Nantes often mean the players which Les Canaris bring in have had a more atypical path before arriving in Brittany. They may be players on the downside of their career, like Nicolas Pallois, Sébastien Corchia or Moussa Sissoko, or players who were once-promising whose careers may have stalled, either through injury or a lack of opportunity – think Pedro Chirivella or Alban Lafont.

Andrei Girotto doesn’t necessarily fit neatly into one of those brackets, but his itinerant spell in Brazil and time spent playing in Japan is more than a little atypical of most players in Ligue 1. That doesn’t mean, however, that his ability on the pitch is dimmed in any way.

A versatile and dynamic player, Girotto has excelled playing as both a defensive midfielder and a central defender, capable of operating in a back four, or as part of a back three. More to the point, it’s hard to even pin down whether Girotto is a better defender or midfielder. Playing centrally, his interception and tackling numbers compare favourably to any midfielder over the past year not named Aurélien Tchouameni, and his tireless running has allowed midfielder Pedro Chirivella’s creativity to be the hub of the team’s attack, while also being relatively adept with the ball at his feet.

In the back line, he is strong in the air, with excellent anticipation making him a deceptively mobile threat from set pieces. On the whole, his movement and positional acumen allows Nantes to be flexible tactically, excel on the counter, and to also not have Nicolas Pallois’ lack of pace be a liability, no matter the system. Able to go toe-to-toe with any side in this way, his play was thus crucial to Nantes’ having overcome several more monied sides on their run to the Coupe de France title last season, beating Nice and Monaco.

Girotto has hardly looked off the pace in Europe, either, with Nantes storming back into the knockout stages of the Europa League thanks to a battling win in the cauldron of the Karaiskakis Stadium against Olympiakos. Things have been more uneven in the league this season, owing to the team’s thin squad, but little of that is down to Girotto, a player who has regularly personified flying under the radar.