Gilberlandio "Gil" Hemmi has been FC Aarau's groundsman for 17 years. However, he is known in Swiss football for a legendary clip with coaching legend Hanspeter Latour. Gil looks back for blue Sport.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Gil Hemmi is best known for Hanspeter Latour's legendary emotional outburst at FC Thun.
- Born in Brazil, he has been groundsman at FC Aarau since 2007.
- Gil talks to blue Sport about his job as groundsman and remembers the shirt scene from 2002.
"Put a shirt on him if he can't do it! Take the shirt off again! Are you spinning? He's not quite sober and he's blowing there!"
It's legendary, Hanspeter Latour's emotional outburst in November 2002, after Gil gave FC Thun the lead against Servette and then had great difficulty putting his shirt back on.
The Brazilian-born player only played in Thun for a few months, but the fans will probably never forget him thanks to Latour's tirade. Gil Hemmi did not make it to the big time. After 33 Super League games and 95 appearances in the Challenge League, he ended his career in 2007 and joined FC Aarau as a groundsman.
Even today, Gil still prepares the pitch at Brügglifeld - and looks back at the legendary scene with Latour on blue Sport: "Back then, we had these special jerseys with an overshirt underneath. I had trouble putting those things on (laughs)."
Greetings from Latour
But the emotions were just so great when he scored. After all, it was his first and only goal for FC Thun - and a very important one at that. Thanks to the goal, the Bernese Oberland team made it to the final round of the NLA. "I had recently been in contact with Latour and he told me that I was an important player for Thun," recalls Gil.
Latour also passed on a message to the FCA groundsman vià blue Sport: "You had a bit of trouble with your shirt, but in hindsight it wasn't half as bad!" Find out why Gil will always be remembered by the coaching legend and what the ex-footballer loves so much about his current job in the video at the beginning of the article.