Football: This is how Africa influences Swiss football
Felix Bingesser, Sven Micossé
There were times when world stars found their way into Swiss club football. Players like Günter Netzer, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge or Uli Stielike. Or world champions like Giancarlo Antognoni or Marco Tardelli enriched our club football in the autumn of their careers. At that time, the Swiss league was still financially competitive. In the meantime, the big football leagues have moved into completely different spheres.
World stars are no longer coming. They go to China or Qatar. Even in Moldova with Sheriff Tiraspol you can earn more. Our league has become a training league. The clubs can only finance loan transactions. Or players who die very young and are largely unknown. Or die a fresh start after a career breakdown.
These players are increasingly coming from Africa. There are also more young Swiss talents with local roots. Together, they shape our football more and more from year to year. Not least thanks to this unusual model of success, Swiss football has seen the most successful era in its history in the last twenty years.
“We called workers and people came,” Max Frisch once said. That also applies to football. For a long time, far too little importance was attached to the integration and support of players from Africa in particular. And yes, there have been and still are racist derailments, as recently in the case of the Lausanne goalkeeper Diaw. Messy heads don’t die out. But they can only marginally impair an extremely positive development.
Three legends who have left their mark in the Super League
Mohamed Salah (29, Basel)
As a young 20-year-old, Salah switched from Egypt to FC Basel. His goals in the Champions League against his future club Chelsea are unforgettable. He then went on to have a world career in Serie A and especially at Liverpool. Salah is one of the best players in the world today.
Shabani Nonda (44, Zurich)
In the beginning, the cold and the strangers hit the young Nonda. Thanks to the support of FCZ trainer Raimondo Ponte, the Burundian is flourishing, scoring goals on the treadmill and moving on to France after three years. He is having his best time with AS Monaco and is in the 2004 Champions League final.
Seydou Doumbia (34, YB, Basel, Sion)
Almost everywhere where Doumbia plays, he hits the running meter. At the age of 20 he had his breakthrough at YB, was top scorer twice and then traveled through soccer Europe. He’s also put on the crown in Russia, the championship title only comes from FC Basel. In a roundabout way, he ends up in Switzerland for the third time – with an unpleasant ending.
Mohamed Salah (29, Basel)
As a young 20-year-old, Salah switched from Egypt to FC Basel. His goals in the Champions League against his future club Chelsea are unforgettable. He then went on to have a world career in Serie A and especially at Liverpool. Salah is one of the best players in the world today.
Shabani Nonda (44, Zurich)
In the beginning, the cold and the strangers hit the young Nonda. Thanks to the support of FCZ trainer Raimondo Ponte, the Burundian is flourishing, scoring goals on the treadmill and moving on to France after three years. He is having his best time with AS Monaco and is in the 2004 Champions League final.
Seydou Doumbia (34, YB, Basel, Sion)
Almost everywhere where Doumbia plays, he hits the running meter. At the age of 20 he had his breakthrough at YB, was top scorer twice and then traveled through soccer Europe. He’s also put on the crown in Russia, the championship title only comes from FC Basel. In a roundabout way, he ends up in Switzerland for the third time – with an unpleasant ending.
Daby Samba is the pioneer
Even in the 1980s and 1990s, relatively few African footballers came to Switzerland. At that time the prevailing opinion was that legionaries from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia could integrate easier and better and that the cultural and climatic “shock” was too great for players from Africa. «Players from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia are also much more disciplined. On and next to the lawn, ”said a well-known coach at the time.
The first player from sub-Saharan Africa to be licensed in Swiss football is Daby Samba from Senegal. A French trainer who works in Dakar places him in Europe. Daby Samba landed at Urania Geneva in 1967 at the age of 25. “I am the first colored footballer to have played in Switzerland. And maybe people looked at me a little strange. But I was received very well », says the now 79-year-old Samba in an interview with Watson.
I never experienced racism. “Back then I went to have a beer with everyone, and I still do it today with my old colleagues,” says the man who still lives in Geneva. The only disillusionment for him was the salary. He receives 150 francs a month. Something else was promised to him. And the modest salary is the reason why Samba will soon end his football career and earn his living as a lifeguard.
Lots of disappointments too
Of course, the story of African footballers in Europe is not just a success story. Many players are brought with great promises. Broken dreams, misunderstandings and bad disappointments follow. One of the first to sense the big business with the placement of African footballers in Switzerland is Robert Zeiser.
The founder of the furniture chain Lipo said in an interview with the newspaper “Sport” in the 1990s, when asked whether he had any moral concerns and also looked after all these players well: “There are people who invest in stocks. I invest in footballers. But I am not a trafficker. I’m more like Pastor Sieber. Each of these young players dreams of Europe. They are all grateful that they are given this chance. If you come from Africa, you will need something warm to wear and the right shoes. We look for these people. “
This colonial arrogance, which was already colonial at the time, caused quite a stir and, as one would put it today, brought Zeiser a real shit storm. It is a crude image of footballing legionnaires that seems downright absurd today.
The multicultural YB
In any case, these were the beginnings of a development that is progressing rapidly. At series champion YB, the African element has been the number one success factor for years. Local players bring speed and physique to football. Factors that also have to do with the genetic advantages of these athletes and that have become central to modern football. “Switzerland is ideal for players from Africa,” says YB sports director Christoph Spycher, “especially for French-speaking players, it is much easier to integrate here than, for example, in Germany. In Germany, the atmosphere is a bit cooler all around than here. “
For Spycher it is clear «that we don’t even have to look for talented players in the second division in South America. There the great talents can hardly be financed any more ». In Africa the reservoir is huge. “Everything is even more uncoordinated there. And of course we have also made a name for ourselves. The African element in our team also has a certain pull. ” And the cliché that Africans are too playful and lack tactical discipline is also over. “Most of them are absolute model professionals in this respect too. And many of them have dual citizenship and have been trained in Europe. “
Team reflects the city
Of course, according to Spycher, the integration does not always run smoothly. “Sometimes it takes a little longer to get to know the family background. But they bring a lot to the table when it comes to football and are also enriching with their contagious joie de vivre. ” Spycher attaches great importance to the statement: «There is no such thing as a typical African. There is no cliché. Everyone has their temperament, everyone has their personality. There are countless differences. ” For Spycher, the large group of players with distant places is not only a success story in terms of sport. «Bern is the capital of a multicultural, modern country. Our team fits perfectly into this city. “
But Africa’s influence is also increasing in other associations. Very pronounced at FC St. Gallen, where French teacher Peter Zeidler is of course the ideal man for francophone players. But the African element is also gaining in importance at the Zurich clubs FCZ and GC, as well as in Lugano and Lucerne. And very traditionally in western Switzerland, where the clubs, with their proximity to France, have long been a contact point for footballers from their country of origin.
A look at the current list of goalscorers in the Super League shows how great the influence of African-born footballers is. With Assan Ceesay (FCZ), Jordan Siebatcheu, Wilfried Kanga (both YB), Kaly Sène (GC), Elie Youan (St. Gallen) and Grejohn Kyei (Servette), six of the ten best scorers in the Super League have African roots. But it’s not just strikers, many clubs currently rely on goalkeepers from Africa.
But it’s not just the quality, it’s also the horrific number, die die thesis, that our football is increasingly influenced by Africa. 122 players from Africa or with foreign parents are currently under contract in the Super League and Challenge League. Tendency increasing.
Mama doesn’t carry the bag
Servette trainer Alain Geiger is already familiar with football and appreciates the independence of these players at a young age. “In Africa, players die very young, learn to take responsibility and to stand on their own two feet. Who carries the bags of young Swiss footballers? It’s the parents. And mother cleans her soccer shoes at home, ”Geiger once said on this subject.
Michel Decastel also knows his way around the continent. The former coach of Sion and Xamax worked as a trainer in Africa for more than ten years. “In Africa you can find fast and physically strong players. And there are now many academies on the continent. There they are very well trained in all areas, ”says Decastel. Integration is crucial. “The coach is challenged. He has to encourage dying players not to isolate themselves and to approach other players. Otherwise it can lead to problems. ” But in this regard, so Decastel, clubs like YB work,
St. Gallen, Zurich and Lausanne are exemplary.
When he landed in Geneva in the 1960s, Daby Samba would never have dreamed of how diverse football and sport have become in this country.
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