Giovanni-Guy Yann Sio (born 31 March 1989) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a forward. Born in France, he played for France national teams at youth level before switching to the

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

at senior level.

Career

Born in

Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire (, ; ) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. It is the third-largest suburb of the city of Nantes, and is adjacent to it on the southeast, across the river Loire. It has two railway stati ...

, Sio began his career with

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

and joined

Real Sociedad B Real Sociedad de Fútbol "B" (also known as Sanse) is a Spanish football team based in San Sebastián, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1955, it is the reserve team of Real Sociedad and plays in Primera Federación � ...

in the summer of 2007, after Nantes released him. In the summer of 2008, he was promoted to the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

team. Sio signed a two-year deal with an option for a third year. On 2 September 2009, Swiss club Sion signed the French forward from

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

. On 29 May 2011 Sio scored the first goal as Sion defeated

Neuchâtel Xamax FCS Neuchâtel Xamax Football Club Serrières or Neuchâtel Xamax FCS () is a Swiss football club based in Neuchâtel. It was created in 1970 through a merger between FC Cantonal, founded in 1906 and Swiss champions of 1916, and FC Xamax founded ...

2-0 in the Swiss Cup Final. In January 2012, he joined

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

for a fee reported as €5 million, signing a four-year deal, keeping him until 2016. He was sent to

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. T ...

on 10 July 2012 on loan, until the end of the 2012–13 campaign. The loan was ended prematurely on 31 January 2013. On 16 August 2013, it was announced that Sio had joined

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

on a four-year contract. Basel joined the 2013–14 Champions League in the qualifying rounds and Sio played his debut for his new club as they played an away game in the play-off round on 21 August. He scored his first goal with the team in the same game as Basel won 4–2 against

Ludogorets Razgrad Professional Football Club Ludogorets 1945 (), commonly known as Ludogorets Razgrad or simply Ludogorets, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Razgrad, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League ...

. Sio played his domestic league debut three days later in the away game in the

Swissporarena Swissporarena is a multi-use stadium in Lucerne, Switzerland, completed in 2011. It is used mostly for football matches and hosts the home matches of FC Luzern of the Swiss Super League. The stadium has a capacity of 16,800 spectators, including ...

. He scored his first league goal in the same game as Basel played a 1–1 draw with

Luzern Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

. At the end of the 2013–14 Super League season Sio won the league championship with Basel. The team also reached the final of the

2013–14 Swiss Cup The 2013–14 Swiss Cup was the 89th season of Switzerland's annual football cup competition. The competition started on 14 August 2013 with the first game of Round 1 and ended in May 2014 with the Final. The winners of the competition qualified f ...

, but were beaten 2–0 by

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

after extra time. Basel advanced to the Champions League group stage and finished in third place in the group table. Thus they qualified for Europa League knockout phase and here they advanced as far as the quarter-finals. But here they were eventually beaten by

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

5-3 on aggregate, after extra time. For Basel's 2014–15 season

Paulo Sousa Paulo Manuel Carvalho de Sousa (; born 30 August 1970) is a Portuguese football manager and former professional player who played as a defensive midfielder. He is the current manager of UAE Pro League club Shabab Al Ahli. Starting his career ...

was appointed as new head coach and it was a very successful season for the team. However, it was difficult season for Sio under the new head coach. Despite the fact that Basel won the championship later that season for the sixth time in a row and that Basel had entered the Champions League in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

reaching the

knockout phase A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

on 9 December 2014, as they managed a 1–1 draw at

Anfield Anfield is a Association football, football stadium in the area of Anfield (suburb), Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since its formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the ...

against

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, Sio totaled just 16 appearances during the first half of the season, 7 (of 18) League, 2 (of 3) in the Cup and just 1 (of 6) in the Champions League, as well 6 further appearances in test games. Because Sousa did not rely upon Sio as a regular player, during February 2015, the club loaned Sio out to

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

team

SC Bastia Sporting Club Bastia (, commonly referred to as SC Bastia or simply Bastia) is a French professional association football, football club based in Bastia on the island of Corsica. The club plays in Ligue 2, the second tier of Football in France, ...

until the end of the season. After his loan period Sio did not return to Basel. During his time with the club, Sio played a total of 59 games for Basel scoring a total of 16 goals. 30 of these games were in the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

, five in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

, 13 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 11 were friendly games. He scored 10 goals in the domestic league, two in the cup, two in the European games and the other two were scored during the test games. On 29 June 2015 the Basel announced that Sio was moving on to

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

. On 29 September 2018, Sio was loaned to Al-Ittihad Kalba SC with an €1.6m option to buy. In November 2021 it was announced that Sio had signed for Sion.

International career

Sio was born and raised in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

to Ivorian parents. He is also a former member of the

France national youth football team The France national youth football team are the national under-21, under-20, under-19, under-18, under-17 and under-16 football teams of France and are controlled by the French Football Federation. The youth teams of France participate in tournam ...

, representing his country at U-15, U-16 and U-17. He was also called up to the Ivory Coast U-20 squad for the

2010 Toulon Tournament The 2010 Toulon Tournament was the 38th edition of the Toulon Tournament and began on 18 May and ended on 27 May 2010. Chile were the defending champions. Participant teams * * * * * * * * Venues The matches were played in these communes: *A ...

. He had his first call-up to the Ivory Coast national team in 2013, in a 2014 World Cup qualifying match against the

Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

. He represented the team at the

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Ivory Coast's goal tally first.''

Honours

Sion *

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sio, Giovanni 1989 births Living people Footballers from Loire-Atlantique Ivorian men's footballers Ivory Coast men's international footballers French men's footballers France men's youth international footballers French sportspeople of Ivorian descent Men's association football forwards 2014 FIFA World Cup players 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players Black French sportspeople Segunda División players Ligue 2 players Swiss Super League players Bundesliga players Ligue 1 players UAE Pro League players Süper Lig players FC Basel players FC Sochaux-Montbéliard players FC Nantes players Real Sociedad footballers FC Sion players VfL Wolfsburg players FC Augsburg players SC Bastia players Stade Rennais FC players Montpellier HSC players Kalba FC players Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers Giovanni Sio Giovanni Sio French expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate men's footballers in Thailand French expatriate sportspeople in Spain French expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland French expatriate sportspeople in Germany French expatriate sportspeople in Turkey French expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates French expatriate sportspeople in Thailand Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Thailand 21st-century French sportsmen