Football mercenaries These Swiss are playing abroad and you have no idea where

We all know Kobel, Xhaka and Embolo. But there are countless Swiss footballers who also earn their money abroad but are hardly in the spotlight. Curtain up for a soccer trip around the world.

Maren Haile-Selassie

Club: Chicago Fire
Position: Left midfield
Age: 25
Market value: 1.8 million euros
Clubs in Switzerland: FC Zurich, Rapperswil, Xamax, Wil, Lugano

Xherdan Shaqiri moved back to Switzerland from Chicago to FC Basel. But the Fire still have two Swiss players. Maren Haile-Selassie has scored five goals in 22 games in the current MLS season. Lugano right-back Allan Arigoni is also on loan. He is also a regular, but is expected to return to Ticino at the end of the year.

Maxime Dominguez

Club: Vasco da Gama (Brazil)
Position: Attacking midfield
Age: 28
Market value: 1.5 million euros
Clubs in Switzerland: Servette, FC Zurich, Lausanne-Sport, Xamax

Dominguez moved from Xamax to Poland in 2021 and from there to Gil Vicente in Portugal in the summer of 2023. There he scored 10 points in 33 league games. That was worth Vasco da Gama - a club from Rio de Janeiro - transferring two million euros for the Swiss midfielder.

Bruno Ogbus

Club: SC Freiburg
Position: central defender
Age: 18
Market value: 150,000 euros
Clubs in Switzerland: Grasshoppers (youth)

In January 2022, Bruno Ogbus moved from GC's U18s to SC Freiburg's U17s as a 16-year-old. At SCF, he marched through the youth divisions and was promoted to the first team this summer. He played 70 minutes against Osnabrück in the DFB Cup and provided an assist. Ogbus has also made two partial appearances in the Bundesliga so far in matches against Bayern Munich and VfB Stuttgart.

Nassim Ben Khalifa

Club: Avispa Fukuoka (Japan)
Position: Striker
Age: 32
Market value: 300,000 euros
Clubs in Switzerland: Grasshoppers, Lausanne-Sport, St.Gallen

The U17 world champion has had an eventful career. Ben Khalifa has played abroad in the Bundesliga, Turkey, Belgium and, since 2022, Japan. The four-time Swiss international has been under contract with Avispa Fukuoka since January 2024, but has not played a single game there.

Franck Surdez

Club: KAA Gent (Belgium)
Position: left-back
Age: 22
Market value: €1.3 million
Clubs in Switzerland: Xamax

In January 2024, Surdez moved from Xamax in the Challenge League to KAA Gent in Belgium. He made a few partial appearances there in the second half of the season before being ruled out with an injury. However, Surdez made an excellent start to the new season. He has already collected three assists in five league games. This puts him at the top of his team's scoring charts.

Cephas Malele

Club: SH Shenhua (China)
Position: center forward
Age: 30
Market value: 1.2 million euros
Clubs in Switzerland: FC Zurich U21

Born in Angola, he learned to play football at FC Zurich. But before he made his professional debut, Malele moved abroad. There he changed clubs more often than others change their underpants. The now 30-year-old has played for 12 different clubs and has been in China with SH Shenhua since March 2023, where he seems to be in the right place. He has scored 15 times in 21 games in the Chinese Super League this season.

Aaron Keller

Club: SSV Ulm (Bundesliga 2)
Position: left-back
Age: 20
Market value: 800,000 euros
Clubs in Switzerland: none

Aaron Keller was born in Kilchberg, Zurich, but started playing football in Hong Kong. In 2017, at the age of 13, Keller moved to Germany and joined the youth team at Unterhaching in 2018. Keller made it into the professional squad there in 2021 at the age of 17. His breakthrough came last season. In 37 third division games, Keller scored nine goals and provided four assists. In March 2024, he also made his debut for the U21 national team and scored immediately after coming on as a substitute in a 3-0 win against Albania. In the current season, Keller was loaned to Ulm in the Bundesliga 2.

Gabriel Bares

Club: Montpellier
Position: Defensive midfield
Age: 24
Market value: 400,000 euros
Clubs in Switzerland: Lausanne-Sport, FC Thun

Bares moved from Thun to Montpellier in France in the summer of 2023. From there, the defensive midfielder was immediately loaned out to Ligue 2, where he was able to gain match practice. This season, Bares is part of the Montpellier squad, but has only played six minutes so far - in the 6-0 defeat against PSG.

Andrin Hunziker

Club: Karlsruher SC
Position: center forward
Age: 21
Market value: 400,000 euros
Clubs in Switzerland: Basel, Aarau

Hunziker missed almost all of last season with Basel due to a cruciate ligament rupture. Nevertheless, the striker ventured abroad (on loan). At KSC in the 2nd Bundesliga, Hunziker has hit the ground running so far. He has been used as a substitute in all four games and has only played 92 minutes so far - but his tally of two goals and one assist is outstanding. If Hunziker continues like this, he is likely to become a regular soon.

Léo Lacroix

Club: Al-Jabalain FC (Saudi Arabian League 2)
Position: central defender
Age: 32
Market value: 350,000 euros
Clubs in Switzerland: Sion, Basel

Léo Lacroix has played one international match for Switzerland. The now 32-year-old played for Saint-Etienne in France and HSV in Germany, among others. However, the central defender increasingly disappeared from the football map, playing in Australia from 2021 to 2023 and the last year with Craiova in Romania, where he was relegated with his team. He has now signed for AL-Jabalain in the Saudi Arabian second division.

Karim Rossi, Persis Solo (Indonesia)

Club: Persis (Indonesia)
Position: center forward
Age: 30
Market value: 300,000 euros
Clubs in Switzerland: Lugano, Schaffhausen, Chiasso

Once trained at GC, Karim Rossi went on to travel the world as a footballer: England, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Indonesia and Cyprus. This summer, Rossi returned to Indonesia to play for Persis.

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