Keystone-SDA | Saturday, 29 June 2024
Ricardo Rodriguez is one of the top 3 most used Swiss national players
In the round of 16 against Italy, Ricardo Rodriguez will play his 119th international match. He is the third current international player to overtake the long-standing record holder Heinz Hermann.
The Zurich native, who turns 32 in August, made his debut for the national team on October 7, 2011. It could hardly have ended more bitterly: Switzerland lost 2-0 to Wales in Cardiff and thus wasted their last chance of qualifying for the 2012 European Championships in Poland and Ukraine. Rodriguez himself soon established himself as a left-back.
His status has hardly been disputed in the almost 13 years since then: Rodriguez has played in all of Switzerland’s World Cup (12) and European Championship (13) games since 2014 – an unmatched record. Even more astonishing: Rodriguez has practically always played the full distance at major tournaments and has only been substituted once.
Heinz Hermann, who ended his career in the national team in 1991, was Switzerland’s record international player until last year. Since last November he has been overtaken one after the other by Granit Xhaka, Xherdan Shaqiri and now Ricardo Rodriguez. This shows how influential the current generation was and is for the Swiss national team. Goalie Yann Sommer also made it into the top 10 national players with the most appearances at this European Championship.
