Luca Cereda is no longer coach at Ambri. After President Lombardi held talks with others, he and Paolo Duca resigned. A few days earlier, the 44-year-old was full of energy.
08.10.2025, 21:00
09.10.2025, 06:50
SDA
The phone rings briefly. Then Luca Cereda answers, asks how he is feeling and confirms that he has plenty of time for a chat. It's Friday afternoon, and the 44-year-old is talking about Ambri-Piotta's difficult start to the season. Never since he was appointed head coach in April 2017 have the Leventines had so few points after ten games. And yet you can feel in every word the Ambri coach says that he believes in a turnaround, that he wants to do everything he can to get HCAP back on the road to success. And that this position is not just a job for him, but an affair of the heart.
Luca Cereda, what does it mean to you to be Ambri coach?
"It's a great honor. It's now my 29th season with the club, first as a junior player, then as a first-team player, then as a junior coach and as a first-team coach. I am very proud to represent these colors and will always give my all to ensure the players and the club are successful."
When you were appointed coach in April 2017, did you think you would stay in the job for so long?
"No. I always aim to do my best and get through the season. I don't plan far in advance or dream. Otherwise I lose myself. I try to live day by day and week by week. But it's also clear: the longer I'm coach here, the closer the end is."
The conversation turns to Arno Del Curto. The Grisons native was on the HC Davos sidelines for 22 years. Cereda has great respect for Del Curto. He spent time in Davos a few times during his coaching training.
"Arno is a great role model for me. He has made Davos one of the best clubs in Switzerland. But staying at a club for so long is extremely difficult."
And yet: if anyone could be trusted to shape an era at a club like Del Curto did at Davos, it would be Cereda. Because he and head of sport Paolo Duca have always managed to overcome difficult moments. And because they always found the energy to give their best for this Ambri.
In 2023, you and your childhood friend Paolo Duca thought hard about retiring. What made you decide to stay on back then?
"Being Ambri coach is a great honor. We get to represent something so big in our home country. But at the same time, it's also a great burden. At the end of the season, we're always empty and tired. That was also the case back then. But with a bit of distance, we felt that it was still important for us to fight and do our best."
It is unusual for a coach and a sporting director to stay at a club for so long. How does this continuity help?
"We try to build something step by step. The problem is that important parts leave us from time to time. Then we take a few steps back and rebuild ourselves as a team. Continuity is extremely helpful because the players know how we work here, how I work as a coach, what I want and what I don't want."
Continuity is apparently less important elsewhere.
"We play in a league where not all teams have the same opportunities. And it remains a results-oriented business..."
Before the derby win against Lugano, your team had lost eight in a row. Is Ambri less results-oriented?
"The results are an important part of our analysis, but they can't and shouldn't be everything. What happens off the ice must also be part of the assessment of a coach or sports director. In the last few weeks, we knew that we were experiencing a difficult moment."
Have you never feared for your job in recent weeks?
"When you lose eight times in a row, it's clear that there will be discussions about the coach. That's normal and a good thing. But we are all in daily contact. In that respect, it doesn't feel any different now than it did a year or two ago. I try to concentrate on what I can control. But I know that the media presence in Ticino is very high and that there are discussions about me. That's clear and it's the right thing to do."
You and Paolo Duca are not only coach and sporting director, but also great figures of identification. Why don't more clubs rely on identification on the sidelines? Why aren't Ivo Rüthemann or Renato Tosio coaches at SCB now?
"Paolo and I didn't do any magic. We simply went back to what Ambri has always done: as a training club, giving young players an important role more quickly. This strategy takes a bit of courage, will and the right timing. Ten years ago, nobody talked about Swiss coaches. Now there are already a few in the National League. I think that's the right way to go. Who knows, maybe sooner or later other former players will find the desire and the strength to take this step."
Could you actually imagine coaching a club other than Ambri? The level of identification for you won't be as high anywhere else.
"I can imagine it, but I don't have a dream where I say I want to coach this or that club one day. But I do: The longer I'm in Ambri, the closer I get to the end. I'm very aware of that. And I know that if I want to continue coaching, I'll have to cross the Gotthard at some point and coach another team. We've already discussed this in the family and I'm open to it."
It's Wednesday morning. The Ristorante 1937 in the Gottardo Arena is buzzing. The journalists from Ticino have gathered because HCAP has invited them to an extraordinary press conference. Duca and Cereda flank president Filippo Lombardi. But the harmony that this trio has radiated in recent years has evaporated. All three are resigning, with Lombardi emphasizing that no one has been dismissed.
On Tuesday, a quote from the politician emerged that Cereda could lose 20 games in a row and not have to fear for his job. And yet Lombardi has been looking around for alternatives in recent days. Talks are said to have already taken place with the former Fribourg coach and sports director Christian Dubé. And when Cereda and Duca heard about this, they resigned.
On the podium, Duca interrupts the Presidente several times, saying: "Stop, I have to say this clearly now. Luca and I would have liked to carry on. But you cut off our legs. We were stabbed in the back."
Cereda chooses less martial vocabulary, first thanking the team for giving him the chance to coach Ambri-Piotta's first team in 2017. His gaze wanders sadly around the room. "I'm proud of these intense years, of qualifying for the Champions League, of winning the Spengler Cup. I'm grateful for all the emotions. And I hope that the team now wins on Friday and Saturday."
Towards the end of the phone call on Friday, Cereda said: "Our biggest goal is for Ambri to be in a good state when we leave - if possible better - than when we started. Achieving that always motivates us." That opportunity was taken away from him and Duca on Wednesday. Before Cereda walks to the exit of the Gottardo Arena, he says: "I'm not disappointed that our journey is now finished, but above all how it ended."
