December 13, 2022 – United Soccer League Championship (USL) – Tampa Bay Rowdies News Release
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla – Today the Tampa Bay Rowdies announced that the club has mutually parted ways with Sebastian Guenzatti to allow the club’s longtime captain the opportunity to pursue other options.
Guenzatti departs from the Rowdies as the club’s all-time scoring record leader with 63 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…