Will Murat Yakin and Swiss football fall victim to a shortage of young talent? Image: keystone
Coach Murat Yakin (or his successor) has reason to be concerned about the future, in one area in particular.
Sebastian Wendel / ch media
Less than a year ago, Daniel Stucki warned FC Basel:
“It is of no use to our club for our juniors to become professionals in St. Gallen or Lucerne. The path upwards, to the first team, must be opened.”
At the time, Stucki was head of the Rhine club’s youth development. He has since been promoted to sporting director of the first team. Last summer, no junior managed to join the professional Basel contingent. On the other hand, FCB recalled Xherdan Shaqiri and signed seven foreigners during the first transfer window overseen by Stucki.
Were his words from December 2023 just hot air? Or do Basel transfers not bear the signature of Daniel Stucki, who is simply carrying out orders from above? Or does Basel not train juniors who are fit for the Super League?
Stucki, however, speaks of Leon Avdullahu, who has been a regular in the pros since this winter. And affirms that Roméo Beney and Junior Zé, two youngsters trained at the club, had their chance but have not seized it so far. The sporting director adds:
“It’s not like two or three players every year make the transition from the junior team to the first team. Only special talents do. And often it doesn’t happen overnight either.”
Leon Avdullahu (right), the Basel exception.Image: keystone
However, it cannot be said that FC Basel is letting the youngsters down. Around 50% of all FCB playing minutes in the 2023/24 season were played by professionals under 23 – by far the best value in the Super League.
But players under 23 who have a Swiss passport only participated in a fifth of this 50%.
Other examples: at FC St. Gallen, which nevertheless claims its local roots, Only three players in the contingent are indigenous. Among them, Corsin Konietzke (18 years old): he is the only one old enough to play with the M21s. For its part, GC is currently on trial with its young player Florian Hoxha (23 years old): the Swiss defender was excluded from the professional framework because the club hired Noah Persson, a young 21-year-old Swede who was rejected at YB, in his position.
Corsin Konietzke, the only young local player at FC St. Gallen.Image: keystone
This observation can be extended to the entire Super League: the percentage of minutes played by young professionals increases from season to season and is now a record in Europe.
On the other hand, the minutes granted to Swiss talents have decreased dramatically since 2019.
In 2023/24, there was an average of 3,101 minutes of play per club for players eligible to play with the Nati U21 or younger Swiss selections. In other words: less than 10% of total playing minutes per club.
Yes, the Super League is indeed a training league. But the clubs train the wrong (read: foreign footballers) people – at least if we consider that future Nati players, in principle, take their first professional steps in the Swiss first division.
Instead of young Swiss players, most of the playing minutes go to French, Portuguese or Africans.
Do these countries train young Swiss people on a large scale in return? Of course not. Why should they?
Of the millions in the trash
The Swiss Football Association (ASF) is aware of the problem. “We don’t like this trend,” Patrick Bruggmann recently told the Daily Advertiser. Bruggmann is the association’s director of football development. Looking at this drop in playing time for young Swiss players in the Super League, he deplores:
“Either the sporting directors are following a completely new line, or maybe our young players are not good enough”
Which would result in a club recruiting a foreigner instead of looking (and finding) its own talent.
GC has a campus, but few of its juniors make it to the Super League.Image: KEYSTONE
This is absurd considering the amount of money that clubs invest in young talent. Everywhere it is about millions, a large part of the total budget. But in practice, the desire to qualify for a European Cup with foreign players is stronger than the desire to actually promote young people. The increase in the league from ten to twelve teams, which reduced the risk of relegation for each club, has not changed this situation.
CH Media, the group to which it belongs watsonspoke to several junior coaches of Swiss professional clubs. They wish to remain anonymous, at their request or on the orders of their employers. Three points come up again and again:
- Young Swiss talents are generally judged by their club on their weaknesses. These then become reasons why they do not get more playing time. Conversely, clubs often say, for example, of a foreign striker that he is “fast”. As for his lack of success in goal, “he will improve it with us”.
A local player: Lucerne striker Lars Villiger (21) has already scored four goals in six Super League games.Image: keystone
- Lack of coordination and communication between club officials is also singled out. A junior coach wonders:
“What is the point, for the player and for me, of training the latter according to the directives of the head of the succession if the sporting director is not aware?”
- Eventually, Patience with young players has been lost. To put it slightly more bluntly: if a former junior is not a starter at 20 and offers worth several million are on the table for him, he is transferred. There is one exception in Switzerland: FC Lucerne.
L’oasis lucernoise and the courage of leaders
At the central Swiss club, talents get more playing time with the first team. They don’t necessarily have to bring in millions, but can also stay and become identification figures.
Yes, FC Lucerne is a thriving oasis in the desert. Under the leadership of sporting director Remo Meyer, the club has been consistently implementing its goal for seven years: opening the way for young Swiss players to the Super League contingent and getting them playing.
Of the 37,620 possible minutes of play in FCL during the 2023/24 season, 14,500 were carried out by young Swiss people under 21. Far ahead of GC, second in this ranking with 4,100 minutes. Remo Meyer specifies:
“At least a third of the places in the professional team are reserved for players from our academy. This allows local prospects to have playing time in the Super League.”
Remo Meyer, sporting director of FC Lucerne
What is needed to achieve this situation that is favourable to young Swiss people? First of all, courage, according to Meyer. Competent trainers too, and, among the professionals, a coach who likes to work with young footballers who are still developing and who does not hesitate to let them play.
Mario Frick trusts young Swiss players. Image: KEYSTONE
In FCL, results are not the only determining factor in deciding the coach’s fate. Missing out on the top 6 last season was certainly annoying, but it did not represent an immediate danger for coach Mario Frick. Remo Meyer adds:
“We have maximum ambitions. But when taking stock, the tolerance for the possible inconsistency of young professionals and the interest of our coach in the next generation also carry a lot of weight.”
The Lucerne team’s strategy is paying off. They have collected the 250,000 francs that the league and the federation have recently been paying to the club that offers the most playing minutes to players from its academy.
Not to mention that more and more talents from all over Switzerland are asking if they can come and play at FC Lucerne.
Because, unlike the clubs in the regions from which they come, the FCL gives them a free hand to the professional team. “But we only very rarely get involved in such cases. We are clearly focusing on the juniors from Central Switzerland,” explains Remo Meyer.
The imbalance between Lucerne and the rest of the Super League is reflected in the latest Nati U21 list this month: it included four FCL players and two other former players, Ardon Jashari and Bradley Fink. Enough to please the Lucerne management.
Is this a warning sign for the senior national team? The decrease in playing minutes for young Swiss players in the Super League should not worry Murat Yakin in the immediate future, but the problem – if it persists – will reach the Nati in four, five or six years. The almost systematic qualification for the Euro or the World Cup would then be seriously threatened.
French adaptation: Yoann Graber
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