Fanni to Remain - Confirmation!

As reported by this site and last week, Montreal Impact today confirmed that French centre-back Rod Fanni would be staying with the club for another year.

The popular former French international and twice Coupe de la Ligue winner has been with the Impact in each of the last two seasons, but this will be the first time he’s been given an opportunity to spend a full season with the club.

In 2017, he joined near the beginning of the year, coming out of retirement to answer Impact’s SOS call in the midst of a centre-back crisis, and last year he again answered the call in critical circumstances, near the season’s end.

At the end of 2018, the Impact had declined to re-sign the veteran.

Although this hardly adheres to a mandate of reducing the average age of the first team squad, it’s a move that finds favour across a fanbase appreciative of what the classy and composed defender has brought during his two previous spells.

Fanni is not the future but can provide vital and effective cover in central defence. With 12 UEFA Champions League games behind him and another 17 in UEFA’s Europa League/UEFA Cup, his experience should also prove useful when Montreal kicks-off its continental campaign against Deportivo Saprissa in February.

Rod Fanni has played in 29 MLS games for Montreal Impact (joint 47th with Michael Azira) in addition to one outing in the Canadian Championship, and has seen service in French league soccer with four clubs; RC Lens, OGC Nice, Stade Rennais and Olympique de Marseille.