Romano Sion (born 9 June 1971) is a Dutch former

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 le ...

who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. In a professional career that lasted 15 years, he amassed

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

totals of 109 matches and 28 goals over seven seasons, mainly with

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

(three years). He also competed in Spain and Portugal, notably with Compostela.

Club career

Born in

Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

, Sion started playing football with

HFC Haarlem HFC Haarlem was a Dutch football club from the city of Haarlem, established in 1889 and dissolved in 2010. The club won the Eredivisie in 1946 and reached five Cup finals, winning in 1902 and 1912. Haarlem reached the second round of the 1982 ...

, competing with the club in both the

and the

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...

. In 1991, he moved to the top flight with

FC Dordrecht Football Club Dordrecht, or simply FC Dordrecht () is a professional Dutch association football club based in Dordrecht, a city in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. They currently compete in the Eerste Divisie, ...

and, after a brief spell with RBC Roosendaal, signed for

FC Groningen Football Club Groningen () is a Dutch professional association football club based in Groningen, province of Groningen. Founded on 16 June 1971 as the successor of GVAV, the team compete in the Eredivisie, the highest tier of Dutch football. G ...

where he experienced his best seasons in the competition, scoring ten goals in 25 games in 1994–95 and netting eight in 27 in the following campaign; whilst a trialist at Millwall, he appeared for them in the

1992–93 Anglo-Italian Cup The 1992-93 Anglo-Italian Cup was the fifth staging of the Anglo-Italian Cup, an annual association football tournament between clubs from England and Italy. Background The competition was re-established in 1992–93 as a replacement for the Full ...

against

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. After spending the second part of 1996–97 with

FC Emmen FC Emmen is a Dutch football club based in Emmen, Drenthe. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, after winning the 2021–22 Eerste Divisie title. Founded in 1925, the club entered the professional Eerste Divisie in 1985. I ...

in the second tier, Sion moved to Spain and joined

SD Compostela Sociedad Deportiva Compostela is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Santiago de Compostela, in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. They play home matches at ''Estadio Multiusos de San Lázaro'', and ...

. He scored six times in his first year with the Galicians, in only 16 matches – including 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 wic ...

in a 6–2 away win against Deportivo de La Coruña in a local derby– but the team suffered relegation from

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

and he played a further three seasons with them in

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

, being involved in several spats with elusive chairman José María Caneda. Sion signed with Portugal's Vitória de Guimarães in January 2001, being sparingly used during his one-and-a-half season spell. For the 2002–03 campaign he joined another club in the country,

Rio Ave F.C. Rio Ave Futebol Clube, commonly known as Rio Ave (), is a Portuguese professional football club based in Vila do Conde, that competes in the Primeira Liga. The club is named after the Ave River, which flows through the town and into the Atlanti ...

of the Segunda Liga. Following a very short stint back in Spain with

Universidad de Las Palmas CF Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Club de Fútbol was a Spanish football team based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1994 as Vegueta-Universidad, it was dissolved in 2011 due to insurmountable economic p ...

Sion returned to his homeland, seeing out the remainder of his career in amateur football.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sion, Romano 1971 births Living people Surinamese emigrants to the Netherlands Footballers from Paramaribo Dutch men's footballers Men's association football forwards Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players HFC Haarlem players FC Dordrecht players RBC Roosendaal players FC Groningen players FC Emmen players Millwall F.C. players La Liga players Segunda División players SD Compostela footballers Universidad de Las Palmas CF footballers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Vitória S.C. players Rio Ave F.C. players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Spain Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Portugal