Roster

Luciano Pechota

Biography

Luciano Pechota arrives in Minnesota on a one-year MLS NEXT Pro contract through 2026, with a club option for 2027, after playing four seasons collegiately at The Ohio State University from 2022-25. With the Buckeyes, Pechota made 72 game appearances (56 starts), where he provided 15 assists and scored eight goals in over 5,100 minutes of action on the pitch. In 2025, he provided a single-season career high in assists (eight) and was one of two players for Ohio State to start every game. In 2024, Pechota helped lead the Scarlet and Gray to the NCAA Division I College Cup, playing all 90 minutes in the national semifinal match.

During his time in Columbus, the midfielder earned a number of postseason accolades and honors, including Second Team All-Big Ten (2023, 2024) and the OSU Scholar Athlete (2023, 2024, 2025).

Prior to his time at Ohio State, Pechota had a prolific high school career with St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio. With St. Ignatius, the midfielder helped lead his team to becoming three-time Ohio high school state and NSCAA national champions (2019, 2020, 2021). He was notably named the United Soccer Coaches National 2021 High School Player of the Year and was also named Mr. Ohio Soccer twice (2020 and 2021).