Valentin "Taty" Castellanos

Valentín Mariano José Castellanos Giménez, known as Taty, was born on October 3, 1998, in Mendoza, Argentina.

Official SS Lazio photo

 He started with the youth academies of Banco Nacion, Club Muriado and finally Universidad de Chile.

In 2017 he played a cup game for Universidad de Chile but was then loaned to Torque in Uruguay. He played 30 games for the team from Montevideo and scored 5 goals, all in the top flight.

In July 2018 he moved to USA and signed for New York City FC. He stayed four years making 134 appearances with 59 goals. He won a MLS in 2021 and was top scorer with 22 goals.

His prolificacy attracted the attention of some European clubs and in 2022 he joined Girona in the Spanish Liga. He played 37 games and scored 14 goals (13 in Liga) and the Catalans finished a decent 10th. His four goals in a 4-2 win against Real Madrid earned him further newspaper headlines.

In 2023 he signed for Lazio. In his first season, under Maurizio Sarri (1-28), Giovanni Martusciello (29) and Igor Tudor (30-38) he played 46 games and scored 6 goals (4 in A). Lazio finished 7th.

In his second year things went better for him personally. He played 40 games under Marco Baroni and scored 14 goals (10 in A). Lazio finished 7th again and reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League (out on a penalty shoot-out in which Taty missed the last one).

In his third he only stayed until January. Under Maurizio Sarri again he played 14 games with 2 goals.

In the winter market session he moved to the Premier League and joined West-Ham United. He made 16 appearances and scored 5 goals (4 in league). The Hammers struggled and ended up relegated to the Championship.

Castellanos has 2 caps for Argentina dating back to 2024.

Castellanos is a centre-forward who likes link up play as well as finishing. He is a skilful player and despite not being particularly tall is good in the air.

At Lazio he had his moments but in general was not a great success. He looked the part with the perfect footballer hair cut and the swagger but did not often deliver. In a way he spent too much time participating in the moves and not enough actually in the area. He had good technique though and scored some spectacular goals, such as the bicycle kick away at Genoa.

In my personal opinion I thought he would make a better beach soccer player.

Lazio Career

Season	Total appearances (goals)	Serie A	Coppa Italia	Champions League	Europa League
2023-24	46 (6)	35 (4)	4 (2)	7	-
2024-25	40 (14)	29 (10)	-	-	11 (4)
Jul-Dec 2025	14 (2)	13 (2)	1	-	-
Total	98 (22)	75 (16)	5 (2)	7	11 (4)

Source

Wikipedia