Basel
THE BASEL FAMILY: SWITZERLAND'S CLUB THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
Why do players often return to the Swiss giants of Basel after leaving the club? We examine the unique lure of the club that keeps on giving.
In Chelsea’s recent Capital One Cup tie away to Shrewsbury Town, Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah was offered a rare start for José Mourinho’s side and, despite creating Didier Drogba’s opener, disappointed thoroughly.
Turn the clock back one year and the forward was tearing the Blues apart in the Champions League, scoring in both group games between Chelsea and FC Basel, including a 1-0 victory at St Jakob Park; those performances, amongst a series of eye-catching displays for the Swiss champions, attracted the attention of
Chelsea manager Mourinho, Liverpool boss
Brendan Rodgers and, undoubtedly, many others.
It was Liverpool that came closest to securing the Egyptian international’s signature, before an apparent attempt to low-ball Basel during negotiations allowed the Stamford Bridge side to pounce and add Salah to an already bloated squad.
Ever since, the forward has struggled to impose himself on Mourinho’s first team and the Portuguese criticised Salah and fellow peripheral figure André Schürrle after their performances in the win over Shrewsbury, bemoaning that, “I expect players to give me problems. If players who played 90 minutes two days ago were fantastic I expect people who are not playing a lot to raise the level to create me problems. They didn't create me big problems.”
From Basel high-flier to Chelsea failure, from
Champions League triumphs to slumps in Shrewsbury, Mohamed Salah’s move to the capital can undoubtedly be identified as a monumental failure, and the Egyptian is not alone. Over the years, Basel has produced more than their fair share of exceptional players but, more often than not, those players never experience the same glory they did at the Swiss club after a big move abroad.
So what makes FC Basel such a talent production powerhouse, and why do said talents often fail upon moving elsewhere?
For some Basel players, a move abroad represents an opportunity to flourish and showcase their talents on a higher stage. For others, such a move represents an opportunity presented far too early, and of a heightened level of expectation that presents an onerous challenge - for these players, a move away from Switzerland and Basel, often to the
Bundesligabut occasionally further afield, is a step too far.
Take the move of Salah to Chelsea and the
Premier League for example. The versatile forward was feted as the ‘Egyptian
Messi’ after a long string of mesmeric performances on the river Rhine, and duly earned an £11 million move to England’s capital; in doing so, Salah effectively replaced the departing Juan Mata and Kevin de Bruyne.
On his move, Salah proclaimed: “I hope I can make the Chelsea supporters happy and have a good career at the club for many years.” Few could say the Egyptian has brought joy to Stamford Bridge so far, and less will surely expect his stay in Chelsea blue to last those many years.
In less than 20 appearances for Chelsea since his January move, Salah has failed to make a mark in the No. 17 shirt, and is already mentioned frequently in terms of players to be replaced for the Blues to move their impressive side forward. A miserable failure since his move from Switzerland.
These struggles are echoed with the plight of Xherdan Shaqiri - arguably Switzerland’s finest talent - at
Bayern Munich.
The stocky winger was labelled “one of the most sought-after talents in European football” after his £9.5 million move to Munich, but has failed to force his way in to Pep Guardiola’s first team on a regular basis. Indeed, the 23-year-old has made only a handful of starting appearances so far this season, for example.
There is evidence of more successful, less overly ambitious moves across the Rhine from the Basel production line - the opulence of Valentin Stocker at Hertha Berlin and Granit Xhaka at Borussia Mönchengladbach are fine examples of this.
Stocker, a perennial performer at Basel, has taken to life at Berlin adeptly since a 2014 move, while Xhaka, one of Basel’s finest young talents of the past decade, who made the move to Mönchengladbach in 2012 and saw his development progress slowly, has now honed his raw flair to become one of the Bundesliga’s most promising performers - and it is easy to forget the midfielder is just 22-years-old.
To his credit, Shaqiri is a growing force in Bavaria too, and does point to the remarkable productivity a club such as Basel has in terms of developing players, but a stuttering run of games shows a clear lapse in judgment when choosing a move to the Bundesliga’s leading outfit.
Both Chelsea and Munich are sides that are widely considered part of the upper echelons of European football and, as such, it could be that these moves represented too far a step up for talents as prodigious even as both Salah and Shaqiri. These moves were effectively demanded by Basel’s continued Champions League involvement. Why, if you’re a player who has tasted the European elite with Basel, would a transfer to a lower level side be beneficial?
To find the answer to that question, a glance over Basel manager Paulo Sousa’s current squad is required.
One significant name to stand out is star striker and current Basel captain, Marco Streller, a seven-time Swiss Super League winner, who also notched a Bundesliga title during a spell away from Basel with VfB Stuttgart.
Despite this success at Stuttgart, Streller never settled in Germany and, in 2007, it was arranged that the striker would return to the Super League and his first senior club. At the time Stuttgart manager Horst Heldt confirmed that “Marco really wanted to move [back] to Basel and asked us for permission to leave, we have managed to find a solution that can be accepted by all parties.”
This desperation to return underlines a true affinity with the player and Basel, and in 2013 Swiss publication TagesWoche ran an interview with Streller in which the striker spoke of his return to Basel and the spirit surrounding not only the club, but the whole area.
The striker spoke of his “unconditional love of the club and the city,” continuing that “it does not matter where you come from, it is important that someone can convey what it means to play for this club that anyone can pass on this fire.”
This, as Streller highlights, continues with names past and present. Basel’s captain references the return of Benjamin Huggel, a midfielder who returned to the side after a two-year spell with Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt, and Alexander Frei, the current all-time leading goalscorer for the Swiss national team who made the switch back to the Super League after more than a decade away.
Streller identifies how “a phase with so many locals in the first team is extremely rare,” and this continues with players such as Philipp Degen; meanwhile returners such as Behrang Safari and another Frei, midfielder Fabian, continue the trend set by players such as Huggel and Frei.
Players leave Basel in search of European glory but many return and are welcomed back, pointing to a rare familial approach within the club. Perhaps this is why Basel enjoy such extended success both in Switzerland and in top European competition, this familial approach is to be commended and will clearly foster a togetherness and widespread belief amongst the squad.
Basel continue to impress in the Champions League this season, with the side more than holding their own against such quality of opposition as Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool side, and this can be attributed to a wide array of factors such as this sense of community, its returning heavyweights, and the latest in a long line of talented young prospects.
This season, the outstanding players to be plucked from the production line include Fabian Schär,
Derlis González and Luca Zuffi, with more promise waiting in the wings with the likes of Cameroonian forward Breel Donald Embolo; each possess the talent and potential to generate significant interest from major European clubs.
However, as precedent has shown with the considerable failure of players such as Salah at Chelsea, and the struggles so far for Switzerland’s brightest talent in Shaqiri at Munich, these players would be wise to weigh up their next move carefully.
Ask a player of the experience of Streller, and you may find the grass is not always greener on the other side of the Rhine.
