Swiss team: “A little saddened” – Murat Yakin talks about Xherdan Shaqiri

Murat Yakin gave a long Christmas interview to Blick. The Switzerland coach discusses the search for a successor to his assistant Giorgio Contini and his relationship with Xherdan Shaqiri.

It was not a complete surprise, but it is a big challenge ahead for national coach Murat Yakin after the departure of his assistant Giorgio Contini for Young Boys, announced last week. Yakin knows perfectly well what he owes Contini.

It was clear to the coach that his now ex-assistant wanted to find a position as head coach after having already managed Lausanne, GC or St-Gall. Such changes are part of business, recalled Murat Yakin.

Contini joined the Swiss team in February and largely contributed to the superb run during the Euro with a qualification in the quarter-finals. “It was a stroke of luck,” emphasizes Yakin. “We had blind trust in each other and I really appreciated that he was enthusiastic about this project.”

One or two people

It is now a matter of finding a successor: “We are currently refining the details of the strategy for the coming year of international matches and for the qualifying matches for the World Cup” 2026, reveals Yakin.

The profile required for the new assistant coach would depend on this: “We need one or maybe two people who, together with me and the rest of the staff, could implement this plan precisely and successfully,” explains -he.

Brilliant this summer, the Swiss team weakened in the fall, like a year earlier, but Yakin sees several reasons: injuries, little luck with the referees and the retirement of the three pillars Fabian Schär, Yann Sommer and Xherdan Shaqiri .

Praise and incomprehension for Shaqiri

This last departure especially did not happen without noise. The left-hander with the magic paw, who is still flourishing at 33 years old within a resurgent FC Basel, was disappointed in an interview at not having received a reaction from Yakin to the announcement of his international retirement.

Murat Yakin disputes this: he thanked Shaqiri and Sommer via the “exclusive player council chat”, congratulated them and wished them good luck. Shaqiri's statements therefore “saddened him a little”, he underlines in Blick.

But Yakin also points out that Shaqiri has always behaved in an exemplary manner, even recently, when he had less and less playing time in the national team. “We cannot replace as easily the presence that players like Sommer, Schär or Shaqiri had,” he recalls.

“A Shaq exudes something positive, whether in the hotel, in the locker room or on the bench. It’s just like that, it’s one of his qualities.” A return, however, does not seem to be on the agenda for the two.