LATICS captain Carl Piergianni has been crowned the PFA Community Champion 2020/21 for his dedication to working with Oldham Athletic Community Trust this season.

The defender has been a leader on the pitch and off it, supporting the community work done by OACT in a difficult year for all concerned as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Piergianni has earned praise for helping to liaise player visits with OACT ensuring all members of the squad get involved with community work and school visits, as well as being hands on himself in hosting several player visits with schools, supporting key events like World Book Day, and spreading numerous community messages, among many other things.

On recieving the award, Piergianni said: "I enjoy getting involved in the amazing work with the Oldham Athletic Community Trust because it’s great to get to know and interact with people from the local area, it’s important for us as players to act as positive role models for all our fans."

Martin Vose, Head of Community at Oldham Athletic Community Trust said: "I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Carl Piergianni for all that he does to support our community delivery.

"Carl has fully embraced all that we have asked him to be apart of, whether that be collecting food items for our food for thought initiative or reading a story to children as part of world book day."

CEO Karl Evans added: "Community is an overused and under-valued word in football. Any football club that truly understands the meaning recognises that it needs to behave in a certain way in everything that it does both on and off the pitch.

"I genuinely can’t think of a better person than Carl Piergianni, who is a model professional, that epitomises how a Club and its representatives should behave within the community. Carl engages on all projects with care and genuine interest and is a true ambassador for our Trust programme."