Giovanni-Guy Yann Sio (born 31 March 1989) is a professional

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, rugb ...

who plays as a forward for

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 seaso ...

club

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

. Born in France, he represented the

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre i ...

at international level.

Career

Born in

Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire (, literally ''Saint-Sébastien on Loire''; br, Sant-Sebastian-an-Enk) is a Communes of France, commune in the Loire-Atlantique Departments of France, department in western France. It is the third-largest suburb of the ...

, Sio began his career with

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

and joined

Real Sociedad B Real Sociedad de Fútbol "B" (also known as Sanse) is a Spanish football team based in San Sebastián, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1955, it is the reserve team of Real Sociedad and plays in Primera Federación ...

in the summer of 2007, after Nantes released him. In the summer of 2008, he was promoted to the

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 L ...

team. Sio signed a two-year deal with an option for a third year. On 2 September 2009, Swiss club Sion signed the French forward from

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septemb ...

. On 29 May 2011 Sio scored the first goal as Sion defeated Neuchâtel Xamax FCS 2-0 in the Swiss Cup Final. In January 2012, he joined

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

for a fee reported as €5 million, signing a four-year deal, keeping him until 2016. He was sent to

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded ...

on 10 July 2012 on loan, until the end of the 2012–13 campaign. The loan was ended prematurely on 31 January 2013. On 16 August 2013, it was announced that Sio had joined

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (B ...

on a four-year contract. Basel joined the 2013–14 Champions League in the qualifying rounds and Sio played his debut for his new club as they played an away game in the play-off round on 21 August. He scored his first goal with the team in the same game as Basel won 4–2 against Ludogorets Razgrad. Sio played his domestic league debut three days later in the away game in the

Swissporarena Swissporarena is a multi-use stadium in Lucerne, Switzerland, completed in 2011. It is used mostly for football matches and hosts the home matches of FC Luzern of the Swiss Super League. The stadium has a capacity of 16,800 spectators, inclu ...

. He scored his first league goal in the same game as Basel played a 1–1 draw with

Luzern Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label= Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital o ...

. At the end of the 2013–14 Super League season Sio won the league championship with Basel. The team also reached the final of the 2013–14 Swiss Cup, but were beaten 2–0 by

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Z ...

after extra time. Basel advanced to the Champions League group stage and finished in third place in the group table. Thus they qualified qualified for Europa League knockout phase and here they advanced as far as the quarter-finals. But here they were eventually beaten by

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

5-3 on aggregate, after extra time. For Basel's 2014–15 season Paulo Sousa was appointed as new head coach and it was a very successful season for the team. However, it was difficult season for Sio under the new head coach. Despite the fact that Basel won the championship later that season for the sixth time in a row and that Basel had entered the Champions League in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

reaching the knockout phase on 9 December 2014, as they managed a 1–1 draw at

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892 ...

against

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, Sio totaled just 16 appearances during the first half of the season, 7 (of 18) League, 2 (of 3) in the Cup and just 1 (of 6) in the Champions League, as well 6 further appearances in test games. Because Sousa did not rely upon Sio as a regular player, during February 2015, the club loaned Sio out to

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

team

SC Bastia Sporting Club Bastiais ( co, Sporting Club di Bastia, commonly referred to as SC Bastia or simply Bastia) is a Corsican association football club based in Bastia on the island of Corsica. The club plays in Ligue 2, the second tier of French f ...

until the end of the season. After his loan period Sio did not return to Basel. During his time with the club, Sio played a total of 59 games for Basel scoring a total of 16 goals. 30 of these games were in the

, five in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

, 13 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 11 were friendly games. He scored 10 goals in the domestic league, two in the cup, two in the European games and the other two were scored during the test games. On 29 June 2015 the Basel announced that Sio was moving on to

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine departme ...

. On 29 September 2018, Sio was loaned to

Al-Ittihad Kalba SC Ittihad Kalba Football Club ( ar, نادي إتحاد كلباء لكرة القدم‎) is a football club in Kalba, United Arab Emirates. History Ittihad Kalba was established in 1972 when two clubs ''(Al Shabab)'' and ''(Al Rooba)'' merged ...

with an €1.6m option to buy. In November 2021 it was announced that Sio had signed for Sion.

International career

Sio was born and raised in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

to Ivorian parents. He is also a former member of the

France national youth football team The France national youth football team are the national under-21, under-20, under-19, under-18, under-17 and under-16 football teams of France and are controlled by the French Football Federation. The youth teams of France participate in tourna ...

, representing his country at U-15, U-16 and U-17. He was also called up to the Ivory Coast U-20 squad for the

2010 Toulon Tournament The 2010 Toulon Tournament was the 38th edition of the Toulon Tournament and began on 18 May and ended on 27 May 2010. Chile were the defending champions. Participant teams * * * * * * * * Venues The matches were played in these communes: *A ...

. He had his first call-up to the Ivory Coast national team in 2013, in a 2014 World Cup qualifying match against the

Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...

. He represented the team at the

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Ivory Coast's goal tally first.''

Honours

Sion *

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sio, Giovanni 1989 births Living people Footballers from Loire-Atlantique Ivorian footballers Ivory Coast international footballers French footballers France youth international footballers French sportspeople of Ivorian descent Association football forwards 2014 FIFA World Cup players 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players Black French sportspeople Segunda División players Ligue 2 players Swiss Super League players Bundesliga players Ligue 1 players UAE Pro League players Süper Lig players FC Basel players FC Sochaux-Montbéliard players FC Nantes players Real Sociedad footballers FC Sion players VfL Wolfsburg players FC Augsburg players SC Bastia players Stade Rennais F.C. players Montpellier HSC players Al-Ittihad Kalba SC players Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Turkey Expatriate footballers in the United Arab Emirates French expatriate sportspeople in Spain French expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland French expatriate sportspeople in Germany French expatriate sportspeople in Turkey French expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates