Nati goalkeeping coach Patrick Foletti is considered a close confidant of Yann Sommer. Following the retirement of the long-serving number 1, Foletti talks about Sommer's departure and the new regular goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.
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- Gregor Kobel replaces Yann Sommer as number 1 of the Swiss national team.
- Goalkeeping coach Patrick Foletti is considered a close confidant of Sommer. This has also led to tensions with the Kobel camp in recent months. However, his relationship with Kobel is also "damn close", explains Foletti.
- "Kobel is the best goalkeeper in Switzerland," Foletti makes clear. After his conversation with Yann Sommer at the beginning of August, Sommer decided to step down from the national team.
The topic of goalkeepers has been a recurring theme in Swiss football in recent months and years. Is Yann Sommer still the right number 1? Or is it time for Gregor Kobel to take over? The 35-year-old Sommer ended the discussions himself two weeks ago when he announced his retirement from the national team.
This marks the start of a new era for the national team. Sommer was Switzerland's undisputed regular goalkeeper for ten years. His closeness to the influential goalkeeping coach Patrick Foletti was obvious.
This upset those close to Kobel. His advisor Philipp Degen publicly criticized Foletti in December, after Murat Yakin had already announced that Sommer would be in goal at the European Championship six months later. The relationship between the goalkeeping coach and Sommer was "far too close", according to Degen. "What Foletti is doing is simply not possible." Before Euro 2016, Foletti said that Sommer was like a son to him.
Relationship with Kobel "damn close"
Now Kobel is number 1, has the friction of recent months left its mark? "No," said Foletti at a media conference on Tuesday. "That's part of it. Degen can say what he wants. There is no problem. My most important contact is Gregor. My communication with him has always been honest and open," says Foletti.
His relationship with Kobel is also "damn close", clarifies the Ticino native. "I've known him since he was eleven." So he always knew how much the BVB goalie wanted to become number 1. "That was his big goal. Maybe he wanted to achieve it a little quicker in his perception. But now is the right moment. Even if he perhaps thought that the right time to change goalie was earlier."
Perhaps Kobel, who has now been named the best Bundesliga goalkeeper by "Kicker" for the fourth time in a row, has also suffered in recent years. Ultimately, however, he always accepted the decisions and never put pressure on himself. Foletti: "He was always hungry. But it was also always an honor for him to be part of the national team. When Murat Yakin and I told him that he was the new number 1, he was beaming from ear to ear and wanted to take a photo."
Mixed feelings after summer resignation
Kobel is "the best goalkeeper Switzerland has", says the 50-year-old. He probably also made this clear to Yann Sommer in a conversation in Milan at the beginning of August. He could no longer assure the Inter keeper - even after consulting Murat Yakin and national team director Pierluigi Tami - that he was still the number one. It was the decisive conversation in which Sommer decided to say goodbye to the national team.
Foletti has mixed feelings about the resignation of his close confidant. "On the one hand, I'm happy because I think he's caught the right moment. Many athletes, even in other sports, miss this moment. On the other hand, I also feel nostalgic because I worked closely with Yann for 14 years." At the end of the day, however, he is happy that Sommer was able to decide for himself when to call it a day.
The question remains as to who will now be number 2 behind Kobel. According to Foletti, this has not yet been decided. "Jonas Omlin and Yvon Mvogo are there now. The youngsters are already lurking behind them. It's the momentum that counts."
