Sean Luca Sogliano (born 28 February 1971) is an Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

director and former player, currently working for

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 Coppa ...

club

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

as the club's director of football. He is the son of former footballer

Riccardo Sogliano Riccardo Sogliano (born 4 March 1942 in Alessandria) is a retired Italian professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Playing career Sogliano played for 7 seasons (144 games, 6 goals) in the Italian Serie A for Varese F.C. and A.C. Mila ...

Playing career

Born in

Alessandria Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin. Alessandria ...

, Sogliano started his career with

Serie C2 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of 2 ...

club

Varese Varese ( , , or ; lmo, label= Varesino, Varés ; la, Baretium; archaic german: Väris) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 has reached 80,559. It is the c ...

at the age of 18. In 1991, he joined

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

outfit

Ancona Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic S ...

, with whom he won a historical first promotion to

for the small club from

Marche Marche ( , ) is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches ( ). The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the ...

and made his personal top-flight debut in 1992. In 1994, he joined

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

, where he played a single season with little success. After a few minor league experiences with Lucchese and

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...

, he returned to play at Serie A level with

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

in 1998. In 2003, aged 32, Sogliano left Perugia to join

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, then in Serie B, in what turned to be the club's final season before being declared bankrupt; his experience in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

proved to be rather unsuccessful, with only six appearances until January 2004, when he was sold to Serie A club

. After playing 11 games with the ''Dorici'', Sogliano retired from active football in June at the age of 33.

Post-playing career

In the summer of 2004 Sogliano accepted to become general manager of

after the club was declared bankrupt and then admitted to the

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football. It is a regional league, composed of 28 divisions divided geographically. All 20 regions are represented by at least one division except for Piedmont and Ao ...

league (sixth level of Italian football) under a new ownership that also included his father

Riccardo Riccardo is a male given name, Italian version of Ricardo or Richard. It also may be a surname. It means "Powerful Leader". It may refer to: People A–L *Riccardo Antoniazzi (1853–1912), Italian violin maker *Riccardo Bacchelli (1891–1985 ...

as vice-president and member of the consortium that controlled the club. Under his tenure as general manager, Sogliano was a key factor in acquiring many of the players that led the club back into professionalism through two consecutive promotions. In 2008 entrepreneur Antonio Rosati took over the club from the previous owners but confirmed Sogliano as general manager: a few weeks after the beginning of the season, after a series of disappointing results, Sogliano agreed to remove

Pietro Carmignani Pietro "Gedeone" Carmignani (born 22 January 1945) is an Italian professional football coach and a former player. He is best known for his playing career as a goalkeeper and, later, for being one of the most trusted assistants of manager Arrigo S ...

as head coach and hire

Giuseppe Sannino Giuseppe "Beppe" Sannino (born 30 April 1957) is an Italian professional football manager and former player, currently in charge of Swiss 1. Liga (football), Swiss 1. Liga club FC Paradiso. Playing career Born in Campania, Sannino relocated to T ...

as replacement. The appointment proved to be a turning point in the season, as well as in Varese's future fortunes, as the club won two successive promotions to

in 2009 and 2010 under the new head coach, also thanks to Sogliano's interventions during the transfer market windows. In 2010–11, Varese gained national news as the team completed the regular season in fourth place and won a place in the promotion playoffs, then lost to fifth-placed

Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

in the semi-finals. Sogliano's impressive work at Varese became popular nationwide and led to a serious interest from

Maurizio Zamparini Maurizio Zamparini (9 June 1941 – 1 February 2022) was an Italian businessman. He was the owner and director of football club U.S. Città di Palermo between July 2002 – February 2017 and from July 2017 – December 2018. Biography Zampari ...

, chairman and owner of ambitious

club

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

, who offered him the director of football position that was left vacant in November 2010 after the resignation of

Walter Sabatini Walter Sabatini (born 2 May 1955) is an Italian former football player turned director of football, who last worked as sporting director at Serie A club Salernitana. Playing career Sabatini made his professional debut with Perugia in 1973, playin ...

. On 8 June 2011, Palermo officially announced to have hired Sogliano as the club's new director of football. During his stay, Sogliano also appointed then-unknown youth coach

Devis Mangia Devis Mangia (; born 6 June 1974) is an Italian association football manager, most recently in charge of the Malta national football team. Managing career Early years Mangia started his coaching career at age 30, working alongside Sean Sogliano ...

in charge of first team duties. He resigned on 2 November 2011 due to his strained relationship with Zamparini, as confirmed by the latter. In June 2012 he was appointed as director of football at Serie B club

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

. In his first season in the new role, Verona won promotion to the top flight; in the second season, Sogliano was responsible for signing players such as

Juan Iturbe Juan Manuel Iturbe Arévalo (born 4 June 1993) is a Paraguayan professional footballer who plays as a forward for Greek Super League club Aris and the Paraguay national team. Iturbe represented the Paraguay national team in a friendly match ...

, Rômulo and

Luca Toni Luca Toni (; born 26 May 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a striker. A prolific goalscorer, Toni scored over 300 goals throughout his career, and is one of the top-five highest scoring Italians in all competition ...

, who turned out being instrumental in the team's successful first season back in the Serie A. In July 2015, he signed for newly promoted Serie A club

Carpi Carpi may refer to: Places * Carpi, Emilia-Romagna, a large town in the province of Modena, central Italy * Carpi (Africa), a city and former diocese of Roman Africa, now a Latin Catholic titular bishopric People * Carpi (people), an ancie ...

as their new director of football, replacing the departing Cristiano Giuntoli; he left the club later on November of that same year due to disagreements with the board. He then moved at

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

just a month later, signing as their new director of football. In July 2016 he left Genoa for Bari. He left Bari after the

2017–18 Serie B The 2017–18 Serie B (known as the Serie B ConTe.it for sponsorship reasons) was the 86th season since its establishment in 1929. A total of 22 teams contested the league: 15 returning from the 2016–17 Serie B season, 4 promoted from 2016–1 ...

, following the club's exclusion from the Italian football leagues. On 3 June 2019 he was announced as the new director of football of

. On 23 January 2022, he was dismissed by Padova. On 17 November 2022, Sogliano was hired by

club

as their new director of football with immediate effect.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sogliano, Sean 1971 births Living people Association football defenders Italian footballers Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players S.S.D. Varese Calcio players A.C. Ancona players Torino F.C. players Ravenna F.C. players A.C. Perugia Calcio players S.S.C. Napoli players S.S.D. Lucchese 1905 players