Raffaele Sansone (; 20 September 1910 – 11 September 1994) was an Italo-Uruguayan

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and coach from

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

After beginning his career in Uruguay with

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (), more commonly referred to as Peñarol, is a Uruguayan professional football club based in Montevideo. The club currently competes in the Uruguayan Primera División, the highest tier in Uruguayan football. The nam ...

, Sansone spent over a decade playing club football for Italian club

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, winning the

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 ...

title four times, and the

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called Coupe de l'Europe Centrale, Mitteleuropäischer Pokal or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European association football, football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the suc ...

twice. After that he moved to

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

where he played one game before retiring; he then became a manager.

International career

Sansone was also called up by the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team () has represented Italy in men's international Association football, football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for fo ...

as an '' oriundo''; he was allowed to play for Italy due to his parents being from Salerno. He turned out for the ''azzurri'' a total of three times, two of these times as starter in the silver medal

1931–32 Central European International Cup The 1931–32 Central European International Cup was the second edition of the Central European International Cup played between 1931 and 1932. It was played in a round robin tournament between five teams involved in the tournament. Final standin ...

campaign.

Honours

Club

;Bologna *

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

: 1935–36, 1936–37, 1938–39, 1940–41

International

;

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Central European International Cup The European International Cup of Nations was an international football competition held by certain national teams from Central Europe & South Europe between 1927 and 1960.Leo Schidrowitz "Internationaler Cup", Vienna 1954 There were competitions ...

: Runner-up: 1931–32

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sansone, Raffaele Italian men's footballers Uruguayan men's footballers Uruguayan emigrants to Italy Italy men's international footballers Serie A players Peñarol players SSC Napoli players Bologna FC 1909 players SSC Napoli managers Italian football managers Uruguayan football managers Uruguayan sportspeople of Italian descent 1910 births 1994 deaths People of Campanian descent Men's association football midfielders 20th-century Italian sportsmen 20th-century Uruguayan sportsmen Footballers from Montevideo