Sandro Grande (born September 29, 1977) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

former soccer player.

Club career

Italy

Born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Grande began his career in Italy, He played four years with U.S.Frenter Larino and Potenza and

Frosinone Frosinone (, local dialect: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is located about south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of the ...

in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Grande became the first Quebec-born footballer to sign with a

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

club, signing a three-year deal with

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...

in 2001. After appearing in just one match for the first team, in the

Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foo ...

in July 2001, Grande was loaned back to

Serie C The Serie C () 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 body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

side

, and then later played in

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

with U.S.Frenter Larino and Potenza and Albalonga.

Canada/Scandinavia

Grande returned to Canada in 2004 to play for the Montreal Impact of the

USL First Division The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010. During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer league system ...

, where he played 30 games and was selected to the First All-Star Team for 2004. In July 2005, he moved to Norway to play for

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

in the

Norwegian Premier League Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion ...

, before moving on to Molde in March 2006. After his contract with Molde expired in 2007, the club chose not to renew it. After fully recovering from surgery on both knees, he returned to Montreal Impact. Upon his return Grande scored one goal in six regular season games, which he scored on September 5 against the

Minnesota Thunder Minnesota Thunder was an American professional soccer team based in Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1990, the team played in the USL First Division (USL-1), the second tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, until 2009. The team played its home ...

. He helped the Impact qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League quarter finals, playing six games in the tournament. On December 2, 2008 the Montreal Impact announced the re-signing of Grande. He was released July 20, 2009 following an in-game choking incident with team captain Mauro Biello.

Lithuania

On March 16, 2010 Sandro Grande signed a contract with Lithuanian club FK Suduva.

Return to Canada

In 2012, Sandro Grande signed a contract with the FC St-Léonard of the

Première Ligue de Soccer du Québec The Première ligue de soccer du Québec (PLSQ) is a semi-professional soccer league created in 2012. The Quebec Soccer Federation operates both men's and women's divisions at the pro-am tier of the Canadian soccer league system. The league is p ...

. He was capped for 13 games, scoring 3 goals. Currently, Sandro Grande is the Technical Director of Les Étoiles de L'Est.

International career

Grande made his debut for the Canada national team in a September 2004 World Cup qualification match against Costa Rica and has earned a total of 12 caps, scoring 1 goal. He has represented Canada in 4 FIFA World Cup qualification matches and was a member of Canada's squad at the

2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the eighth edition of the Gold Cup, the football championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). It was contested in the United States in July 2005. The United States emerged victorious ...

International goals

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

Coaching career

CS Monteuil

On September 20, 2018 CS Monteuil announced Grande as the new team coach for the 2019 PLSQ season, although he departed before the end of the season.

CF Montréal Reserve

Grande was hired on 9 January 2023 as the head coach of CF Montréal Reserve, the reserve side of MLS club CF Montréal. He was released from the position a day after due to backlash over comments Grande made on Twitter in 2012, following the attempted assassination of Quebec premier

Pauline Marois Pauline Marois (; born March 29, 1949) is a retired Canadian politician, who served as the 30th premier of Quebec from 2012 to 2014. Marois had been a member of the National Assembly in various ridings since 1981 as a member of the Parti Québ ...

References

External links

''MontrealImpact.com'' with Grande's profileSandro Grande – Facebook
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grande, Sandro 1977 births Living people 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Association football midfielders Canada men's international soccer players Canadian expatriate soccer players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Canadian people of Italian descent Canadian soccer coaches Canadian soccer players Frosinone Calcio players Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Lithuania Expatriate footballers in Norway Molde FK players Montreal Impact (1992–2011) players Soccer players from Montreal Eliteserien players U.S. Catanzaro 1929 players USL First Division players Première ligue de soccer du Québec players Viking FK players FC St-Léonard players