Swiss football has a problem with young talent, which is why Alex Frei, national team director Pierluigi Tami and Patrick Bruggmann, director of football development, are campaigning for an expansion of the top Swiss leagues. But there is also a need for leverage in dealing with the players.
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- Help, we're running out of national team stars. How can Switzerland train more and better young players with Swiss passports? Nati Director Pierluigi Tami, Patrick Bruggmann, Director of Football Development and blue Sport expert and former Nati star Alex Frei discuss this topic.
- The focus will be on the expansion of the top two leagues. But the treatment of the young players themselves is also a talking point.
- For Alex Frei, "alarm bells always ring" when he hears the term "talent" and Patrick Bruggmann believes that far too much is taken from the players and ultimately the all-important resilience falls by the wayside.
Pierluigi Tami says that he repeatedly hears from players who move abroad that the training is very intensive. A statement that he doesn't want to let stand. After all, training is also tough in Switzerland, but perhaps not everyone is prepared to push themselves to their limits due to the lower level of competition. And so not all players have the necessary winning mentality. The fact that the Swiss way works can be seen time and again with those players who make the leap abroad.
Alex Frei: "That will take its revenge in the future"
Alex Frei sees another problem that affects players at a young age. "We hear the word talent a lot. Nowadays, we give a certain amount of importance to a 14- or 15-year-old who shouldn't be important at all." The person is of course important, but not the player. "But nowadays you tell a 15-year-old that you're a talent. Internally at the club, you say he's a super talent, he's a talent, but they haven't achieved anything yet. That suddenly gives him an importance, not just for himself, but also in the whole environment, which isn't necessary," says Frei.
The best saying for him was that of the footballing and coaching legend Johan Cruyff, who died in 2016, who said: "The runner-up of today is the high-flyer of tomorrow, or at least can be." He also trained according to this saying, says Frei. His goal was always to make every single player better and help them take the next step. Everyone, not just a select few.
The problem is that many players, and especially those around them, can't deal with being called a talent. Frei thinks: "So let's just talk about players and then we'll see where you get to. Helping, accompanying, absolutely right. But let's stop giving them so much importance." The potential is always just a wishful thinking, the actual state is a fact. For him, "all the alarm bells always ring" when he hears about talent. "And that will take its revenge in the future," Frei is certain.
Bruggmann: "They no longer have to think for themselves"
Patrick Bruggmann, Director of Football Development and an absolute expert in the field of youth football, sees another problem. "Resilience is incredibly important in the development of a player. And at the moment, we have a tendency in youth development to teach them to be less independent because we do everything for them. As soon as there is resistance, you somehow find a solution or the player says: 'I don't like it here and I'm leaving'. This development of resilience is a very important criterion for being able to perform."
The further up you get, the more is done for the players, for example the shirt is ready in the dressing room and so on: "They no longer have to think for themselves. And that's also a problem for me on the pitch," says Bruggmann. In what way? "You expect them to be creative, to make decisions quickly. But in training, we do everything for them and they're told you have to do this and that in the situation. Somehow, creativity is lost as a result." The responsibility that a player has for his personal development is also not encouraged in this way. "And then we bring up players who are no longer prepared to take responsibility for their actions. They don't have the resilience they need. As soon as something goes wrong, they're simply gone." However, it is the responsibility of the decision-makers to change this.
