Pratto on Santa Fe stint: "At Unión I found my confidence" | OneFootball

Lucas Pratto recalled how his arrival at Unión came about in the 2009/10 season—a brief but decisive step in his career. The striker, who at the time was seeking more playing time after coming up through Boca, revealed that there were two key names behind his move to Santa Fe: Nery Pumpido and Coco Basile.

“Nery Pumpido called me, he was Unión’s manager, and the team was second in the B division. He told me they wanted to bring me in. That’s how I accepted. Coco Basile helped me a lot to leave, because otherwise, maybe they wouldn’t have even let me go from Boca,” said Oso on the program Clank! At that time, he was just 21 years old and needed minutes on the field to prove himself.

That loan turned out to be a great decision for both the player and the club. In 19 matches wearing the tatengue jersey, Pratto contributed six goals and seven assists, becoming one of the standout players on the team led by Turco Alí.

The striker himself recalled how fate unexpectedly opened the door for him to the starting lineup: “When I arrived at Unión, I got lucky, because in the first match I was supposed to be on the bench. I arrived and the tournament started a week later. In attack, Claudio Guerra and Chaco Cólzera were playing. The Friday before, Claudio got injured during set-piece drills. So I played the first match, we won 1-0, and I got the assist, as well as playing well.”

The start was ideal. “In the second match, we won again, I scored a goal, and in the third, when Claudio came back, Turco took Chaco out so we could form a duo,” he recalled, laughing.

Beyond the numbers, what Pratto values most from his time at Unión is the personal and football growth he experienced: “I was more mobile, because I was never a classic number 9. In those 19 matches, I played every minute and gained a lot of confidence. We didn’t achieve promotion, but I felt important, I was always there.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.