Giovanni Sio


Giovanni-Guy Yann Sio is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Turkish club Gençlerbirliği and the Ivory Coast national team.

Career

Born in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, Sio began his career with Nantes and joined Real Sociedad B in the summer of 2007, after Nantes released him. In the summer of 2008, he was promoted to the Segunda División team. Sio signed a two-year deal with an option for a third year.
On 2 September 2009, Sion signed the French forward from Real Sociedad.
On January 2012, he joined VfL Wolfsburg for a fee reported as €5 million, signing a four-year deal, keeping him until 2016. He was sent to FC Augsburg 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 on a four-year contract. At the end of the 2013–14 Super League season, he won the league championship with Basel. They also reached the final of the 2013–14 Swiss Cup, but were beaten 2–0 by Zürich after extra time. During the 2013–14 Champions League season, Basel reached the group stage and finished the group in third position. Thus, they qualified for Europa League knockout phase, and they advanced as far as the quarter-finals.
The 2014–15 season was also successful for Basel. Sio's season was difficult under trainer Paulo Sousa. 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 reaching the knockout phase on 9 December 2014, as they managed a 1–1 draw at Anfield against Liverpool, Sio totaled just 16 appearances during the first half of the season, 7 League, 2 in the Cup and just 1 in the Champions League, as well 6 further appearances in test games. Because Sousa did not rely upon Sio, during February 2015, he loaned Sio out to Ligue 1 team SC Bastia until the end of the season.
On 29 September 2018, Sio was loaned to Al-Ittihad Kalba SC with an €1.6m option to buy.

International career

Sio was born and raised in France to Ivorian parents. He is also a former member of the France national youth football team, 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. He had his first call-up to the Ivory Coast national football team in 2013, in a 2014 World Cup qualifying match against the Gambia.

Career statistics

Club


International goals

NoDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.17 November 2015Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Abidjan, Ivory Coast1–03–02018 FIFA World Cup qualification
2.17 November 2015Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Abidjan, Ivory Coast2–03–02018 FIFA World Cup qualification
3.8 January 2017Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates2–12–1Friendly