Arnaldo Antonio Sanabria Ayala (born 4 March 1996), also known as Tony Sanabria, is a Paraguayan 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 Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

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and the Paraguay national team.

Club career

Barcelona

Born in

San Lorenzo, Paraguay San Lorenzo () is a city in the Central Department in Paraguay. It is a suburb of Asunción, and the third most populous city in Paraguay, with a population of 252,561. The National University of Asunción campus is located in San Lorenzo, that ...

, Sanabria started his career in

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

, later moving to football. He joined

Cerro Porteño Club Cerro Porteño is a professional Paraguayan Association football, football club, based in the neighbourhood of Obrero (Asunción), Obrero in Asunción. Founded in 1912, Cerro has won 34 Paraguayan Primera División, Primera División titles ...

's youth academy in 2004. In 2007, he and his parents moved to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, and he joined a local club from

Sitges ; , ) is a town about 35 kilometres southwest of Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain, renowned worldwide for Sitges Film Festival, its film festival, Carnival, and LGBTQ culture. Located between the Garraf Massif and the Mediterranean Sea, it is know ...

, called La Blanca Subur CF. Sanabria joined

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

's youth academy in 2009, aged 13. A year later, he moved to

La Masia La Masia de Can Planes, usually shortened to La Masia (; ), is FC Barcelona's youth academy. It includes more than 300 young players and has been an instrumental factor in Barcelona's European success, producing several world class players and ...

's facilities. In September 2012, still a youth, he was called up by manager

Tito Vilanova Francesc "Tito" Vilanova Bayó (17 September 1968 – 25 April 2014) was a Spanish professional football central midfielder and manager. After a career which consisted of a total of 26 La Liga matches in three seasons, all with Celta, he went ...

to train with first team. In August 2013, Sanabria was promoted to

FC Barcelona B FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Paki ...

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 ...

. On 29 September he made his professional debut, playing the last 22 minutes in a 0–1 home loss against

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (, , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or RCD Mallorca, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Palma de Mallorca, ...

. On 20 November 2013, Sanabria rejected a contract extension from ''Barça''. Three days later he scored his first professional goal, in a 1–2 home loss against

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas S.A.D. is a professional association football, football club based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. The club will compete in Segunda División, the 2nd division in the Spanish football league syst ...

. He was linked to

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

and others which faced fierce competition to sign him in January.

Sassuolo

On 29 January 2014, Sanabria joined fellow

side

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town is best known for being the centre of the Ita ...

, for a €4.5 million fee, plus €7.5 million bonuses "dependent on the player’s performance and his future value". The deal was later clarified and he would join Roma in July, as the ''Giallorossi'' already reached the foreign quota. Sanabria made his Serie A debut on 23 March, replacing

Davide Biondini Davide Biondini (; born 24 January 1983) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Cesena Biondini started his career at Cesena, near his birthplace. After playing more than 40 Serie C1 games, he left ...

in a 0–1 loss at

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

Roma

Sanabria officially joined Roma in July 2014 for €4.926 million (including €2.5 million from Roma via Sassuolo to Barcelona). Roma also took the contractual responsibility from Sassuolo, to pay Barcelona up to an additional €7 million for bonuses. As well as being a member of the first team squad, Sanabria also featured for the Roma Primavera squad in the

2014–15 UEFA Youth League The 2014–15 UEFA Youth League was the second season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA. It was contested by the under-19 youth teams of the 32 clubs qualified for the group stage of the 2014–1 ...

, scoring two goals in the 3–2 defeat against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

on 5 November 2014. On 8 February 2015, Sanabria made his first team debut for Roma, replacing

Francesco Totti Francesco Totti (; born 27 September 1976) is an Italian former professional Association football, footballer who played solely for AS Roma, Roma and the Italy national football team, Italy national team. He was a technically gifted and creati ...

after 62 minutes, in the 2–1

victory against

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

Sporting Gijón (loan)

On 11 August 2015, Sanabria returned to Spain after agreeing to a one-year loan deal with

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

side

Sporting Gijón Sporting may refer to: *Sport, recreational games and play *Sporting (neighborhood), in Alexandria, Egypt Sports clubs *Alexandria Sporting Club, a sports club from Alexandria, Egypt *BFA Sporting, a football club from Beirut, Lebanon *Real Sporti ...

. He made his league debut on 23 August, starting in a 0–0 home draw against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

. Sanabria scored his first La Liga goals in on 23 September, netting a brace in a 3–2 away win against

Deportivo La Coruña ''Deportivo'' (Spanish, 'sporting') may refer to: * Deportivo de La Coruña, commonly known as simply Deportivo, a Spanish football club * Déportivo, a French rock band * Deportivo (Mexicable) Mexicable is an aerial lift line in Ecatepec de ...

. Sanabria scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in Sporting's 3–1 home success over

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...

on 6 December 2015. He added another on 22 January of the following year, coming in a 5–1 route of

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, ...

Betis

On 15 July 2016, Sanabria signed a five-year deal with

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

for a fee of €7.5 million, with Roma retaining a 50% clause on the following transfer and a re-buy clause. On 20 September 2017 he scored the winning goal in Real Betis' 1–0 win over

. It was Betis' first win at the Bernabeu since October 1998, when

Finidi George Finidi George (born 15 April 1971) is a Nigerian professional football coach and former footballer who played as a winger. After making a name for himself at Ajax in the Netherlands – being a leading figure in a team which won eight major ti ...

scored in another 1–0 victory.

Genoa

On 26 January 2019, Sanabria signed for

club

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

on loan until 30 June 2020.

Torino

On 31 January 2021, Sanabria signed a four-year contract with fellow Serie A club

. On 4 January 2024, Sanabria extended his contract with Torino until 30 June 2026.

International career

Sanabria played for both the under-17 and under-20 Paraguay teams. In 2013, Sanabria was called up to the Paraguay national team for two qualification matches for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

, against

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

to make an official appearance for the national team, in the case that Spain wanted to nationalize him. He made his full squad debut on 14 August 2013, in a 3–3 draw against

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Sanabria was selected as part of Paraguay's Copa America Centenario squad, where he made two appearances. He came on as a substitute in the second group stage match against

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, as well as started in the final group stage match against the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Paraguay's goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

;Barcelona *

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

: 2013–14

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanabria, Antonio 1996 births Living people Footballers from San Lorenzo, Paraguay Paraguayan men's footballers Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players FC Barcelona Atlètic players Sporting de Gijón players Real Betis players Serie A players US Sassuolo Calcio players AS Roma players Genoa CFC players Torino FC players Paraguayan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy Paraguay men's under-20 international footballers Paraguay men's international footballers Copa América Centenario players 21st-century Paraguayan sportsmen