Carlos Clay de França (born 1 January 1980) is a Brazilian

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

and former player. He works with

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa, Liguria. Sampdoria was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the ...

as the club's Under-18 youth coach.

Playing career

França started his European career playing for the small Barcelona-based club

CE Europa Club Esportiu Europa () is a Catalan football team based in the city of Barcelona, with close links to the Vila de Gràcia, in the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. Founded in 1907, its first men's team plays in the , the fourth category ...

. He scored a goal for the team to win a promotion to

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

in 2005. He suffered from a spinal tumor in 2006 that almost ended his football career. According to the footballer himself, he also played for

Chicago Fire Premier Chicago Fire U-23 was an American soccer team based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 2001, the team last played in the PDL, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. They last played in 2016, choosing to leave the PDL. ...

and Chicago Storm. França scored a goal in the last group stage round in 2008 PDL season for Chicago Fire Premier against

Michigan Bucks Flint City Bucks is an American soccer team based in Flint, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1995, the team plays in USL League Two. The club was founded in 1995 as the Mid-Michigan Bucks, playing in Saginaw, and began playing in 1996. In ...

. He was a player of Caperanese in the 2009–10 season, which won Serie D promotion in 2010 from

Eccellenza Liguria Eccellenza Liguria is the regional Eccellenza football division for clubs in the northern Italian region of Liguria. It consists of 16 teams competing in one group. The winning team is promoted to Serie D, the top level of Italian amateur football ...

(Italian sixth highest level until 2014; top level of Liguria region).

Serie D clubs

França remained in the squad of Caperanese in

2010–11 Serie D The 2010–11 Serie D was the sixty-third edition of the top level Italian non-professional football championship. It represented the fifth tier in the Italian football league system. It originally consisted of 166 teams, with two divisions allocat ...

season. In May 2011, he joined

Bogliasco Bogliasco () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa in the Italian region Liguria, located about southeast of Genoa. Together with the ''comuni'' of Camogli, Recco, Pieve Ligure and Sori, it is part of the so-call ...

. França joined

Cuneo Cuneo (; ; ; ) is a city and in Piedmont, Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, the fourth largest of Italy’s provinces by area. It is located at 550 metres (1,804 ft) in the south-west of Piedmont, at the confluence of the ri ...

in 2014. França joined

Lecco Lecco (, , ; ) is a city of approximately 47,000 inhabitants in Lombardy, Northern Italy, north of Milan. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como (the branch is named ''Branch of Lecco'' / ''Ramo di Lecco''). The Bergamasqu ...

in 2015. In the following season, he joined fellow Serie D club

Triestina Unione Sportiva Triestina Calcio 1918, commonly referred to US Triestina or just Triestina, is an Italian football club based in Trieste, in the northern Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. Originally established in 1918, Triestina was one of the fo ...

. After winning the Serie D promotion playoffs with Triestina, França signed a new contract with the club on 7 July 2017. The promotion of Triestina was confirmed on 4 August. However, on 31 August 2017, he returned to

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

for

Potenza Potenza (, ; ; , Potentino dialect: ''Putenz'') is a ''comune'' in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata (former Lucania). Capital of the Province of Potenza and the Basilicata region, the city is the highest regional capital and one of ...

. França played twice for Triestina in 2017–18 Coppa Italia and once at 2017–18 Coppa Italia Serie C.

Potenza

França was a player for

since mid-2017. The team won promotion to

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

2017–18 Serie D The 2017–18 Serie D was the seventieth edition of the top level Italian non-professional Association football, football championship. It represents the fourth tier in the Italian football league system. A total of 167 teams, divided on geographic ...

Group H winner. He also scored 25 league goals that season, as the second in the topscorer table of that group.

Seregno

On 17 August 2020 he moved to

Seregno Seregno (; ) is a town and ''comune'' of the new Province of Monza and Brianza in the Italian region of Lombardy. Seregno received the honorary title of city by a presidential decree on 26 January 1979. It is served by Seregno railway station ...

. In November, he was sidelined due to a serious knee injury which required surgery.

RG Ticino

In August 2021, after having guided Seregno to Serie C as a head coach, França decided to accept an offer as a player for Serie D team RG Ticino. He successively left the club by the end of December and retired again from active football.

Coaching career

On 2 March 2021, while still recovering from injury, his club

announced to have promoted França as head coach of the

club. Under his tenure, Seregno managed to climb up the table and win promotion to

with one game still in hand, thus bringing back the Lombardian club to professional football for the first time since 1982. Despite his successes, on 24 July 2021 Seregno announced França was not confirmed as head coach for the club's upcoming Serie C campaign. In the summer of 2023, França accepted an offer from

to be the club's new under-18 coach.

Honours

Player

;club *

group stage winner: 2015 (Cuneo) * Serie D group stage runner-up and promotion playoffs winner: 2017 (Triestina) *

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football.Official ...

group stage runner-up (Liguria) and promotion playoffs winner: 2010 (Caperanese) ;individual *

Group A topscorer: 2015 (Cuneo) *

topscorer: 2010 (Caperanese)

Manager

Seregno *

Girone B:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Personal life

Cassiano Bodini is his brother-in-law.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Franca, Carlos 1980 births Living people Footballers from São Paulo (state) Brazilian men's footballers Brazilian football managers Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Chicago Fire U-23 players CE Europa footballers US Triestina Calcio 1918 players Potenza Calcio players US 1913 Seregno Calcio players Serie C players Serie D players Men's association football forwards Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Italy USD Lavagnese 1919 players 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen