Saúl Basilio Coco-Bassey Oubiña (born 9 February 1999), better known as Saúl Coco, 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, rugby le ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Serie A club Torino. Born in Spain, he represents

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea ( es, Guinea Ecuatorial; french: Guinée équatoriale; pt, Guiné Equatorial), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( es, link=no, República de Guinea Ecuatorial, french: link=no, République de Guinée équatoria ...

at international level.

Early life

Coco was born in

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

, to Basilio Coco-Bassey Eyanga and a Spanish mother. His father is an Equatoguinean former footballer and current coach who played for Canarian club CDU Puerto del Carmen in the 1987–88 season, alongside his brother Luis (Coco's uncle). Coco is also of Nigerian descent through his paternal grandfather.

Club career

Coco joined RCD Espanyol's youth setup in July 2016, after representing

CD Orientación Marítima Club Deportivo Orientación Marítima is a Spanish football team based in Arrecife, Lanzarote, in the autonomous community of the Canary Islands. Founded in 1954, it plays in Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol in Canary Islands, holding home games ...

(where he was trained by his father) and UD Las Palmas. In August 2018, after finishing his formation, he was loaned to Tercera División side UA Horta for the season. Coco made his senior debut on 18 August 2018, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 3–1 home win against

UE Figueres Unió Esportiva Figueres is a Spanish football team based in Figueres, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1919 and refounded in 2007 it plays in the Primera Catalana league, holding home matches at ''Estadi Municipal de Vilateni ...

. The following 18 July, he returned to his former club Las Palmas, being assigned to the C-team also in the fourth division. Promoted to the reserves in

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

ahead of the 2020–21 campaign, Coco made his first team debut on 17 December 2020, replacing

Álvaro Lemos Álvaro Lemos Collazo (born 30 March 1993) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Las Palmas as a right winger. Club career Born in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Lemos joined Deportivo de La Coruña's youth setup in 2005 at the a ...

in a 4–0 away win against

CD Varea Club Deportivo Varea is a Spanish football team based in Varea, La Rioja, Logroño in the autonomous community of La Rioja. Founded in 1967 and refounded in 2009, it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 16, holding home games at ''Estadio ...

, for the season's Copa del Rey. On 15 June 2022, he renewed his contract until 2025, being definitely promoted to the main squad. On 15 April 2023, Coco scored his first goal at any level for Las Palmas on his 69th appearance, consolation in a 2–1 loss at Granada CF. The team ended the season with promotion to La Liga, where he scored for the first time on 8 October to open a 2–1 victory away to Villarreal CF; his 30-yard direct free kick won the

La Liga Goal of the Month The La Liga Goal of the Month is an association football award that recognises the player who is deemed to have scored the best La Liga goal each month of the season from August to May. The award was introduced for the 2023–24 La Liga, 2023–2 ...

award. On 17 July 2024, Coco signed for Serie A club

Torino FC 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 ...

on a four-year contract.

International career

Eligible to play internationally for

, Nigeria or Spain, Coco was called up to the senior squad of the former in August 2017. He made his full international debut on 3 September, replacing

Pablo Ganet Pablo Ganet Comitre (born 4 November 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Primera Federación club CD Alcoyano. Born in Spain, he plays for the Equatorial Guinea national team. Club career Born in Málaga, Andalu ...

in a 1–2

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

loss to Benin; by doing so, he became the first person from Lanzarote to get called up internationally in 67 years. The match was subsequently eliminated from

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

records, as the referee and his assistants referees were from Equatorial Guinea. Coco became

cap-tied Cap-tied is an adjective, used primarily in association football, to describe a player who has represented a senior national football team in more than three games (including at least one competitive game) and as a result is unable to represent a ...

to Equatorial Guinea on 17 November 2018, when he appeared in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier match against Senegal. He scored his first international goal on his sixth appearance on 7 October 2021, opening a 2–0 home win over Zambia in

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

qualification. He played all of his team's games in their run to the quarter-finals of the

2021 Africa Cup of Nations The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (also referred to as AFCON 2021 or CAN 2021), known as the TotalEnergies 2021 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 33rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's foo ...

in Cameroon, scoring in the penalty shootout win over Mali in the last 16.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Equatorial Guinea's goal tally first.''

Honours

Individual *

: October 2023

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Coco, Saúl 1999 births Living people People from Lanzarote Footballers from the Province of Las Palmas Spanish sportspeople of Equatoguinean descent Spanish people of Nigerian descent Spanish people of Galician descent Equatoguinean sportspeople of Spanish descent People of Canarian descent People of Galician descent Equatoguinean people of Nigerian descent Sportspeople of Nigerian descent Spanish men's footballers Equatoguinean men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Serie A players RCD Espanyol B footballers UA Horta players UD Las Palmas C players UD Las Palmas Atlético players UD Las Palmas players Torino FC players Equatorial Guinea men's international footballers International sportspeople born abroad 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players 2023 Africa Cup of Nations players 21st-century Spanish people 21st-century Equatoguinean people Spanish expatriate men's footballers Equatoguinean expatriate men's footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Equatoguinean expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy