ST. PETERSBURG, Fla – Today the Tampa Bay Rowdies announced the departure of longtime club captain Sebastian Guenzatti.
By mutual consent, the Rowdies and Guenzatti have agreed to allow the veteran goal scorer to pursue other opportunities.
Guenzatti departs from the Rowdies as the club’s all-time scoring record leader with 65 goals in 161 appearances, the second-most appearances for any player in the club’s modern era
“I want to thank everyone from the whole Rowdies organization,” said Guenzatti. “From the front office to the players, to the coaching staff, obviously the fans who were always there, and my family. I’m grateful for everybody that was a part of my six years with the Rowdies. We’ve created great memories together. This winning legacy that we’ve built hopefully will last a lifetime. From the first day I got here, Tampa Bay welcomed me and my family with open arms. We loved living here. This is our home. This is not a goodbye but a see you later.
“Hopefully I filled the shoes of a captain the right way. Coming after Georgi Hristov, Joe Cole, and the many other great captains that the Rowdies have had, my hope since the first time I wore the armband was to fill the role as well as they did. Breaking the club’s scoring record was obviously an unbelievable achievement for me, but it was more for the fans. I’m glad they got to see somebody break that record in person and that I was the one to do that for them. I can say that I’m leaving the Rowdies with my head held high because I know that every time I stepped on the field wearing those hoops I left everything I had out there and that I always represented the Rowdies the right way.”
Guenzatti came to the Rowdies midway through the 2017 USL Championship after an ACL injury abruptly ended his 2016 campaign with the New York Cosmos. The Uruguayan-born forward proved his fitness in training and earned a regular spot coming off Tampa Bay’s bench for the rest of the season and into 2018.
When Head Coach Neill Collins took charge of the club in May of 2018, Guenzatti was playing consistently but not in the No. 9 position up top that fans have become accustomed to and the one that he wanted all along. Collins eventually gave Guenzatti his chance and the attacker did not disappoint as he recorded just the second hat trick of the Rowdies’ modern era in a 3-0 win over North Carolina FC on September 1, 2018.
That offseason, Collins handed the captain’s armband to Guenzatti and the Rowdies became a prominent force in the USL Championship. Guenzatti set a club single-season scoring record with 19 goals in 2019, a record he would go on to break himself with 22 goals in 2021. With Guenzatti leading the way the Rowdies reached three straight Eastern Conference finals, claiming consecutive victories in 2020 and 2021. Guenzatti’s innate ability to score consistently also propelled the Rowdies to the best regular season record in the USL Championship in 2021 with a club record of 71 points.
“Seba will go down as one of the greatest players ever to wear a Tampa Bay Rowdies jersey,” said Collins. “Of course, we will all remember the match-winning goals and moments of magic he produced, but what makes Seba a true great is his incredible work ethic, will to win, and team-first mentality.”
“He has helped raise and set the standards at the club over the past few years. It is now up to our current squad members to sustain and try to surpass these incredibly high standards. We will miss our captain but we wish him nothing but the best in the next stage of his career.”
