Alessandro Ferreira Leonardo (; born 10 March 1987), commonly known as Sandro, is a former

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian-born

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

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 ...

who played as a forward.

Club career

Citizen

Sandro was sent off after a second bookable offence in the match against

South China South China ( zh, s=, p=Huá'nán, j=jyut6 naam4) is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is ...

, when he pressured

Zhang Chunhui Zhang Chunhui (; born 13 March 1983) is a Chinese-born Hong Kong football coach and former professional footballer. Club career Zhang was selected in the Hong Kong Top Footballer Awards (Best XI Squad) in the 2006–07 season. On 2 July 20 ...

to take his goal kick quickly and was considered by the referee to have obstructed the goalkeeper. Citizen lost the match 2–1. Sandro scored a hat-trick against

Tai Po Tai Po is an List of areas of Hong Kong, area in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It refers to the vicinity of the traditional market towns in the area presently known as Tai Po Old Market or Tai Po Kau Hui () (the original "Tai Po Mark ...

on 2 May 2009 to help the club win 4–1 and end the 2008–09 season in third place in the league. On 25 October 2009, Sandro scored 5 goals for Citizen against Happy Valley at

Siu Sai Wan Sports Ground Siu Sai Wan Sports Ground () is a multi-purpose stadium in Siu Sai Wan, Hong Kong. It is currently used mostly for football matches. It occupies about 43,000 square metres and its construction cost over HK $230 million. Opened in December 1996 ...

, including a 50-yard lob. With

Citizen Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality ...

, Sandro won the

Hong Kong Senior Shield The Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield (), known commonly as the Senior Shield, is the football knockout inter-club competition held in Hong Kong and the fourth oldest football tournament in Asia. Traditionally, only teams that play in the Hong K ...

after defeating

in the final on penalties. But his contract was not renewed by the club at the end of the season.

Metro Gallery

Sandro joined Metro Gallery/Rangers for the 2011–12 season. He scored on his debut for the club in the 1–4 defeat away to

Pegasus Pegasus (; ) is a winged horse in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a white stallion. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was the brother of Chrysaor, both born from Medusa's blood w ...

. He scored again in the second game against his old club Citizen to tie the match 2–2.

Pegasus

Sandro joined

for an undisclosed fee before the start of 2012–13 season. However, he only scored 1 goal in 10 matches and was released by the club on 31 December 2012.

Citizen

Sandro re-joined

as a free transfer after he was released by Pegasus.

Kitchee

On 15 July 2015, Sandro was formally signed as a

Kitchee Kitchee Sports Club (; ; ) is a Hong Kong professional Association football, football club based in Kowloon. It was founded in 1931 and currently competes in the Hong Kong Premier League. The club has won 12 List of Hong Kong football champion ...

player. There was controversy surrounding the move as he had signed a pre-contractual agreement with

Eastern Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

nine months prior. While Sandro claimed, through his lawyer's advice that the agreement was not legally binding, Eastern's Executive Director Peter Leung took league action after the

Hong Kong Football Association The Football Association of Hong Kong, China Limited (HKFA; ) is the governing body of association football in Hong Kong, People's Republic of China. Its current chairman is Eric Fok. History The HKFA was established in 1914. It is one of the ...

was unable to resolve the situation. Eventually the situation was resolved. During the 2016–17 season, Sandro scored 21 goals en route to winning the Golden Boot. He was rewarded with a new contract on 11 July 2017.

Tai Po

After spending the latter half of 2018 with Indonesian club

PSM Makassar Persatuan Sepakbola Makassar ( 'Football Association of Makassar') commonly referred to as PSM Makassar, is an Indonesian professional football club based in Makassar, South Sulawesi that competes in Liga 1. PSM was founded in 1915 as , ma ...

, Sandro returned to Hong Kong. He joined

on 6 February 2019 ahead of their 2019 AFC Cup campaign. On 4 May 2019, Sandro scored two goals in the second to lead Tai Po to a 2–1 comeback victory against title rivals R&F. The win clinched Tai Po's first league title in club history. On 26 December 2019, after the match against Lee Man in the semi-final of the Senior Shield, Sandro announced that he would leave the club with immediate effect.

Eastern

On 1 January 2020, less than a week after leaving Tai Po, Sandro signed with

. He scored on his debut for the club in a 2–1 win over Lee Man. On 1 June 2021, Sandro left the club.

Guangxi Pingguo Haliao

On 2 March 2022, Sandro signed with

China League One The Chinese Football League 1 (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (), is the second level of professional football in China, under the Chinese Super League. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association ...

club

Guangxi Pingguo Haliao Guangxi Pingguo Football Club (; ) is a Chinese professional Association football, football club based in Pingguo, Guangxi, that competes in . Guangxi Pingguo plays its home matches at the Pingguo Stadium, located within Pingguo. Founded in 2018 ...

Madureira

On 11 February 2023, Sandro returned to Brazil after 15 years and joined Madureira.

International career

Sandro was born and raised in

, but became a naturalized Hong Kong citizen through residency in November 2015. On 7 November 2015, Sandro made his international debut and scored his first goal for

in a friendly match against

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Hong Kong's goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

;Citizen *

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

;Eastern *

Hong Kong FA Cup Hong Kong FA Cup () is a knockout cup competition in Hong Kong football, run by and named after The Hong Kong Football Association. The first edition of the competition was held in 1975, before then the cup was known as the Golden Jubilee Cup. T ...

: 2019–20 *

Hong Kong Sapling Cup Hong Kong Sapling Cup (), currently known as JC Sapling Cup () for sponsorship reasons, is a Hong Kong domestic football (soccer), football competition contested by the Hong Kong Premier League teams. The objective of the Cup is to provide more p ...

: 2020–21 ;Kitchee *

Hong Kong Premier League The Hong Kong Premier League () is a Hong Kong professional football league organised by the Football Association of Hong Kong, China. It is currently sponsored by BOC Life and officially known as BOC Life Hong Kong Premier League (). The inau ...

: 2016–17, 2017–18 *

: 2016–17 *

: 2016–17, 2017–18 *

: 2017–18 *

Hong Kong League Cup Hong Kong Football Association League Cup () was an annual football competition contested by clubs in the top-tier Hong Kong domestic football league. The cup was relaunched for the 2014–15 season after being discontinued in the 2012–13 seaso ...

: 2015–16 * Hong Kong Community Cup: 2016–17 *AFC Cup Play-Off: 2015–16 ;Tai Po *

: 2018–19

Individual

* Hong Kong First Division Golden Boot: 2011–12 *

Golden Boot: 2016–17

References

External links

*
Alessandro Ferreira Leonardo
at HKFA * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sandro Living people 1987 births Hong Kong men's footballers Hong Kong men's international footballers Hong Kong expatriate men's footballers Brazilian men's footballers Brazilian emigrants to Hong Kong Men's association football forwards Hong Kong First Division League players Hong Kong Premier League players Liga 1 (Indonesia) players China League One players Citizen AA players Hong Kong Rangers FC players Hong Kong Pegasus FC players 21st-century Hong Kong sportsmen Yuen Long FC players Wong Tai Sin DRSC players Kitchee SC players PSM Makassar players Tai Po FC players Eastern Sports Club footballers Guangxi Pingguo F.C. players Madureira Esporte Clube players Naturalised footballers of Hong Kong Hong Kong League XI representative players Expatriate men's footballers in Hong Kong Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Expatriate men's footballers in Indonesia Hong Kong expatriate sportspeople in Indonesia Expatriate men's footballers in China Hong Kong expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen