2025 is all about qualifying for the World Cup for the Swiss national team. In order to be prepared for this, coach Murat Yakin is starting the year with a casting - especially in defense.
17.03.2025, 15:45
17.03.2025, 16:02
SDA
Murat Yakin is aiming for a hat-trick. After the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the 2024 European Championship in Germany, the 2026 World Cup in North America should follow. It is the 50-year-old national team coach's ultimate goal. A third consecutive qualification would see him draw level with his predecessor Vladimir Petkovic. The latter led the national team to two European Championships and one World Cup. With Yakin, it would be the other way around and therefore even more impressive - after all, there are fewer places up for grabs in World Cup qualifiers.
However, the matches against Sweden, Slovenia and Kosovo, which will decide who takes part in the tournament, will only take place between September and November. Until then, Yakin has time to find the best players for the big challenge. "We want to give new and young players a chance," says the national coach. "It's about having different options in the fall."
And so the big player casting takes place at the training camp in Almancil, at the southern end of Portugal. In attack, the young Lausanne player Alvyn Sanches will be under particular scrutiny. However, the situation in defense is of primary interest.
Little international experience
Of the nine defenders in the current squad, only Ricardo Rodriguez has many years of experience: he has already played 125 international matches. After that, there is a huge gap. Eray Cömert has made 17 appearances, while the "third most experienced" player is Cédric Zesiger with four games. Aurèle Amenda and Miro Muheim played their only international matches to date last fall. Lucas Blondel, Stefan Gartenmann, Albian Hajdari and Isaac Schmidt have never played for the national team before.
It was known that defensive boss Manuel Akanji would not be involved due to injury. The fact that Nico Elvedi was not included came as a surprise. "I explained to Nico that I know him, that I know what I have in him," explained Yakin. Silvan Widmer (49 caps), Edimilson Fernandes (34), Kevin Mbabu (25) and Ulisses Garcia (10) were also left out of the squad. Now others will have to prove themselves.
It is therefore already clear: against Northern Ireland on Friday (in Belfast) and against Luxembourg on Tuesday (in St. Gallen), an unusual, possibly even adventurous defensive line-up will be deployed. Yakin let it be known at the squad announcement that he thinks a lot of Blondel and Gartenmann. Both are 28 years old, so they are no longer young hopefuls, and have hardly spent any time in Switzerland in their lives. Blondel grew up in Argentina, Gartenmann in Denmark. Pulling two "exotic" players out of the hat suits Yakin, who has already surprised with unconventional personnel decisions in the past. Sometimes he was successful, sometimes less so.
The change is finally here
Yakin also seems to have deviated from his credo of only fielding players who play regularly for their clubs. Schmidt only made two full-length appearances for Leeds United in the FA Cup this season. In the league, he has been substituted seven times in the closing stages, most recently on Boxing Day. Aurèle Amenda was injured on his debut for the national team in November and only made his comeback as a substitute last week. Schmidt had been on the radar for some time, says Yakin, and Amenda impressed in his debut. "Ultimately, it's also about getting to know each other."
Yakin takes the term "test match" literally and is trying out who else might fit into the team. Compared to last summer's 26-man European Championship squad, half of the players have been replaced. "Maybe we didn't really want to acknowledge the upheaval in the fall," says the coach. "But now we have to be ready: I hope not, but if key players like Granit (Xhaka) or Manu (Akanji) are out again, we have to have options."
Yakin recalls that a kind of casting also took place before the European Championship. Back then, the coach surprised everyone with an XXL squad of almost 40 players, which was gradually reduced. The success of the tournament was a confirmation for him. Inspired by this, he and his new assistant Davide Callà will now take a similar approach and go in search of the new superstar in March and probably also in the two test matches in June.
