Roberto Carlos Sosa (born 24 January 1975) is an Argentine 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 lea ...

and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

Playing career

Sosa was born in Santa Rosa,

La Pampa La Pampa () is a sparsely populated province of Argentina, located in the Pampas in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Luis, Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Neuquén and Mendoza. History In ...

. He started playing for Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata in 1995. His best season with Gimnasia was in 1997–98 when he scored 28 goals in 38 matches. He was the top scorer in the 1998 Argentine Torneo Clausura, with 17 goals. After this excellent season, Sosa was transferred to Italy, to play with Serie A team

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

. He spent almost 10 years playing in Europe, playing with Serie A and Serie B teams Ascoli and

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

. He also spent four years with

S.S.C. Napoli Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli (), commonly known as SSC Napoli or simply Napoli, is an Italian professional football club based in Naples, Campania that currently competes in the Serie A, the highest league of Italian football. Napoli are am ...

between 2004 and 2008, helping Napoli to return to the Italian Serie A. Then, he returned to Argentina to play for his first club Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata, which was struggling to keep its Primera A standing. Even though Sosa had a mediocre 2008/09 season, scoring only 2 goals in 24 games, he helped Gimnasia to avoid relegation. Perhaps, his most memorable moment during his last return to Gimnasia happened on 5 April 2009. Sosa was unable to deliver on his promise to score twice against derby rivals Estudiantes, and became upset with those who criticized him for running his mouth, citing his ten-year playing spell in Europe. In June 2010, Sosa signed in for Sanremese. In December 2010, he received death threats to leave the club by the

'Ndrangheta The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a mafia-type organized crime, criminal syndicate originating from the Calabria region of Italy. Gratteri & Nicaso, ''Fratelli di Sangue'', pp. 65–68 This body, also referred to as the Commission in reference to the ...

. He was out of the team by February. He finished the season playing for

FC Rapperswil-Jona Fussball Club Rapperswil-Jona is a Swiss football club based in Rapperswil, Switzerland. The team currently play in Challenge League (Switzerland), Challenge League from 2025–26, the second tier of Swiss football after promotion from Promotio ...

in Switzerland Third Division. At the end of the season, he retired. Roberto Sosa was not a technical player, but he was an effective scorer. Overall, he scored 112 goals in 385 games.

Post-playing and coaching career

After his retirement, Sosa has been working as a color commentator for

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and took his coaching badges. On 1 August 2014, he was appointed head coach of recently relegated

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

club

Sorrento Sorrento ( , ; ; ) is a City status in Italy, city and overlooking the Gulf of Naples, Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the southern terminus of a main branch o ...

. He left Sorrento by mutual consent on 5 January 2015. He then served as head coach of

Eccellenza Campania Eccellenza Campania is the regional Eccellenza football league for clubs in the Southern Italian region of Campania, Italy. It is composed of 32 teams, divided into divisions A and B, which are 2 of the 28 total Eccellenza divisions in all of Ita ...

club Savoia throughout the 2015–16 season, ended in third place. In September 2016, Sosa accepted an offer from newly promoted Serie D club Vultur Rionero.

Personal life

Sosa's son Tomás, born 2001 in

Udine Udine ( ; ; ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Carnic Alps. It is the capital of the Province of Udine, Regional decentralization entity ...

, followed on his father's footsteps and he plays for

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, 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 ...

club

Pontedera Pontedera (; ) is an Italian comune with a population of 30070, located in the province of Pisa, Tuscany, Central Italy, central Italy. The town is located 20 km (12 miles) from Pisa and 50 km (31 miles) from Florence. It houses the headquarte ...

as of February 2023.

Honours

Udinese

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Napoli

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

** Winners (1): 2005–06

References

External links

raisport player profile
* at Fútbol XXI
Guardian statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sosa, Roberto 1975 births Living people Footballers from Santa Rosa, La Pampa Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Italy ACR Messina players Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata footballers Udinese Calcio players Boca Juniors footballers Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players SSC Napoli players SSD Sanremese Calcio players Men's association football forwards Serie A players Serie B players Argentine Primera División players Sorrento Calcio 1945 managers FC Rapperswil-Jona players Argentine football managers