Vacation photos and a title dance What the Nati stars are up to six months before the home European Championships

Patrick Lämmle

7.1.2025

Iman Beney and her brother Roméo (bottom right) kick a ball on the beach in Brazil with Timm Klose (left) and Gelson Fernandes (bottom left), among others.
Iman Beney and her brother Roméo (bottom right) kick a ball on the beach in Brazil with Timm Klose (left) and Gelson Fernandes (bottom left), among others.
Screenshot: instagram.com/iman.beney

On July 2, 2025 at 9 p.m., Switzerland will kick off the European Championship at home against Norway in Basel. Many of the national team stars therefore used the days off around Christmas and New Year to fully recharge their batteries so that they can really get going afterwards.

When does the second half of the season start?

  • 🇨🇭 Switzerland: February 2
  • 🇩🇪 Germany: January 26
  • 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England: January 8 (FA Cup) / January 17 (League)
  • 🇮🇹 Italy: January 6 (Roma win Super Cup) / January 11 (League)
  • 🇪🇸 Spain: January 5
  • 🇫🇷 France: January 7
  • 🇳🇱 Netherlands: January 18
  • 🇸🇪 Sweden: March 1 (Cup) / March 23 (League)
  • 🇦🇹 Austria: February 8 (Cup) / February 9 (supplementary match) / February 15 (league)
  • 🇺🇲 USA: Preparation camps from January 15 / March 14 (league)
  • 👑 Champions League: March 18/19 (quarter-final first legs)

Before we turn to the vacation snapshots, there is already some sporting success news to report. Alayah Pilgrim and Eseosa Aigbogun won the Super Cup with AS Roma against Fiorentina 3:1 on Monday. The first title win of the season is a fact.

Pilgrim, who can look back on a torrid year with many injuries, celebrates the title with an exuberant dance in the team bus. She may not play, but at least she is back in the squad. In the last ten games before the turn of the year, she was slowed down by injuries. Pilgrim seems to be on the verge of a comeback. The 99-time international Eseosa Aigbogun, on the other hand, was substituted in the 82nd minute with the score at 2:1. The 31-year-old has never played under Sundhage before, having missed months of last year due to a cruciate ligament rupture and only making her first appearance for the Romans in November.

The Nati stars' vacation snapshots

Over the festive period, the Nati stars have been busy posting vacation pictures. Iman Beney went to Brazil with her family. There she soaked up the sun and honed her technique. One of her many vacation pictures shows her playing footvolley on the beach with ex-NATI players Timm Klose, Gelson Fernandes and her brother Roméo, who FC Basel are loaning out to Stade Lausanne-Ouchy for the second half of the season.

FCB player Coumba Sow, who grew up in Zurich as the daughter of a Senegalese father and a Dutch mother, is drawn to the Ivory Coast. She seems to be enjoying her time to the full. Her followers can almost follow her every move, whether she is strolling through the streets, snacking on fruit in the jungle, holding a beetle in her hands or watching hippos bathing.

Sow's FCB team-mate Aurélie Csillag is also spending a few days off in Côte d'Ivoire. She even shares photos with Sow - and her snapshots of the food make her hungry.

Viola Calligaris pushes a baby carriage in front of her, the child is of course not her own. The Juve player is enjoying a few days with her family.

National team captain Lia Wälti, who plays for Arsenal, is also drawn to Switzerland. Many of her pictures and videos have a Jö effect, as a cute, snow-loving puppy appears again and again.

Alisha Lehmann, who has often been labeled the social media queen, is back in training, as her latest post shows. Before that, the soon-to-be 26-year-old, who celebrates her birthday on January 21, soaked up the sun. Her series of pictures, which show her sitting on a hammock balancing a ball on her forehead like a seal or sitting on a deckchair and eating a burger with relish, has been liked over 500,000 times.

Nadine Riesen from Eintracht Frankfurt has also already completed her first performance tests. She had previously been recovering in Thailand.

The Swiss national team's program for the European Championship year

The Swiss matches in the Nations League

  • February 21: Switzerland - Iceland
  • February 25: Norway - Switzerland
  • April 4: Switzerland - France
  • April 8: Iceland - Switzerland
  • May 30: France - Switzerland
  • June 3: Switzerland - Norway

Switzerland's matches at the 2025 European Championship at home

  • July 2: Switzerland - Norway
  • July 6: Switzerland - Iceland
  • July 10: Finland - Switzerland