Sandro Cois (; born 9 June 1972) is an Italian former 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 ...

. He enjoyed a lengthy career, playing primarily as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Italian clubs

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 ...

, Saviglianese,

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

, and

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

. Due to his tactical intelligence, passing, stamina, tenacity, and versatility, he was capable of playing in several

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

and

defensive Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

positions. At international level, he represented

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

on three occasions between 1998 and 1999, and was member of the team that took part at the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

Club career

Cois was born in

Fossano Fossano ( pms, Fossan) is a town and ''comune'' of Piedmont, northern Italy. It is the fourth largest town of the Province of Cuneo, after Cuneo, Alba and Bra. It lies on the main railway line from Turin to Cuneo and to Savona, and has a branch li ...

. He played for several clubs throughout his career, including

(1988–1994),

(2002–03) and

(2003). He achieved notable success with Torino early in his career, after achieving

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 ...

promotion by winning the

1989–90 Serie B The Serie B 1989–90 was the fifty-eighth tournament of this competition played in Italy since its creation. Teams Triestina, Reggiana, Cagliari and Foggia had been promoted from Serie C, while Torino, Pescara, Pisa and Como had been relegate ...

title with the club. He later won the

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the successor states of the former Austria-Hungar ...

in 1991, the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

in 1993, and he helped his team to the

1991–92 UEFA Cup The 1991–92 UEFA Cup was the 21st season of Europe's then-tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. It was won by Dutch club Ajax on away goals over Torino of Italy. The victory made Ajax only the second team – after Torino's city ...

final, after helping his team to qualify for the tournament by leading them to a third place in Serie A in 1991. In the

1992 UEFA Cup Final The 1992 UEFA Cup Final was played on 29 April 1992 and 13 May 1992 between Ajax of the Netherlands and Torino of Italy. Ajax won on away goals after a 2–2 draw in the first leg in Turin and a 0–0 draw in the second in Amsterdam. The victory m ...

, they were defeated by

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

on aggregate. Cois is perhaps best known for his spell at

(1994–2002) in the mid-late 90s where he won over the fans with his tireless running and tenacious play, becoming important to the side as the less glamorous foil to playmakers like

Rui Costa Rui Manuel César Costa (; born 29 March 1972) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who is the 34th president of sports club S.L. Benfica. He also succeeded Luís Filipe Vieira as president of the club's SAD board of directors. ...

and

Domenico Morfeo Domenico Morfeo (born 16 January 1976) is a retired Italian football player, who played as midfielder, usually as an attacking midfielder. Throughout his career, he played for several clubs in Italy, and also spent short spells at many top Italia ...

. With the club he won two

trophies in 1996 and 2001, and a

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

in 1996, also helping Fiorentina to two third-place finishes in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

International career

It was during his period with Fiorentina in the late 90s that Cois broke into the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...

. He was a participant at the

, although he never became a regular in the side, winning just 3 caps between 1998 and 1999, one of which was in an unofficial match against the

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 ...

World Stars, also failing to make an appearance at the 1998 World Cup.

Honours

Player

Club

Torino *

: 1992–93 *

: Runner-up

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

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 ...

: 1989–90 *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

: Runner-up 1991–92 *

: 1991 * Memorial Pier Cesare Baretti: 1990, Runner-up 1993 Fiorentina *

: 1995–96, 2000–01 *

; Runner-up

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cois, Sandro 1972 births Living people People from Fossano Association football midfielders Italian footballers Italy international footballers Torino F.C. players Piacenza Calcio 1919 players ACF Fiorentina players U.C. Sampdoria players Serie A players Serie B players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Italian people of Sardinian descent Footballers from Piedmont Sportspeople from the Province of Cuneo