Lars Villiger in top form Haaland and Kane are his role models - what makes the 21-year-old Lucerne super-talent tick

FC Luzern is the club in the Super League that relies most on Swiss talent. One of them is Lars Villiger, who has scored four times in the first six games of the season.

Home game against Winterthur, 51st minute, Lars Villiger gives FCL a 2-0 lead with a magnificent lob after he had already scored to make it 1-0. "A few players came up to me and said they had expected a lot of things, but not that," said the 21-year-old striker in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency. "That has to do with how I'm doing at the moment. I have a lot of self-confidence."

In addition to the four goals he scored, Villiger set up two more Lucerne goals. He puts the good run down to "hard work and a team that fits together well with the new additions". However, he has been warned. He also made a promising start to last season, scoring four goals in the first nine league games, before going scoreless for six months in the Super League.

Lessons learned from the past

Villiger is now often asked about this, but for him it is tempi passati. During the difficult phase, he learned not to worry too much in order to keep his composure. "I talked to the coach (Mario Frick) about it from time to time," he says. "If you tense up too much, you lack the necessary conviction in front of goal and can no longer play the ball the way you want to."

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Villiger benefits from the fact that FC Luzern relies on its own juniors more than any other club in the Super League. Coach Frick says: "That's the club's philosophy. So it was never a question for me to support this. I find it exciting to introduce our own talents to the Super League - even if the development is not always linear or predictable. It would certainly be desirable for Swiss football if more of its own talents were promoted again."

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The fact that Frick used to be a good striker himself also helps Villiger. "I can take a lot from him." As the Swiss U21 international failed to score a goal with his head last season despite his height of 1.90 m, Frick now lets him train with a header pendulum from time to time. This has already paid off. Villiger scored two of his four goals in the championship with his head.

He knows exactly what he wants

Villiger started his career at FC Sins. He still lives in the Aargau town with his parents. He harbored the dream of becoming a professional footballer from an early age. When he had to write down what he wanted to be when he was in the first grade, he wrote down: "Fusbaler". When the note turned up again in middle school, a few people laughed at him because he had spelled the word wrong, Villiger recalls.

In April 2023, the dream became reality; Villiger signed a professional contract with FCL. He did this alone, as he did not have an advisor at the time. Although a few people knocked on his door, none of them said yes. That says a lot about him. He knows exactly what he wants and consistently pursues his goals. He has now found what he was looking for. His consultant team includes a personal trainer from Munich and a mental trainer from Constance. He works with the former once or twice a week via FaceTime to "optimize certain things". He has also already made use of the mental trainer. Most recently, the focus was on calming down.

One of Villiger's strengths is his two-footedness; it's not obvious which foot he shoots better with. This is important to him, as being unpredictable is a key point for a striker. When asked about his weaknesses, he replies: "I don't focus on them." Another sentence that says a lot about him.

Kane and Haaland as role models

Frick also believes he has a great career ahead of him. "Lars is very team-oriented, robust and is currently not afraid to consistently go for the finish. If he continues to work hard on himself and doesn't worry too much, he can certainly recommend himself for higher tasks."

Does Villiger have a dream destination abroad? "Let me put it another way. If I could swap places with a player, I'd do it with Harry Kane. He is at a club (Bayern Munich) that is a destination for any striker who thinks big." Kane is also one of his role models alongside Erling Haaland, partly because he is a leader in the team. First of all, however, Villiger wants to continue to cause a sensation in the Super League and come up with more spectacular goals.

SDA