Patrick Fischer is stepping down as Swiss national team coach after the home World Cup and will be replaced by Jan Cadieux. What do the two protagonists say?
03.12.2025, 18:00
03.12.2025, 18:54
SDA
For Fischer, this move had been on the agenda for some time, but at the end of the summer the idea became more concrete. A decisive argument for him was the World Cup next May in Zurich and Fribourg. "If the home World Cup had been in 2027, that would have changed things," the 50-year-old from Zug admits in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency.
Fischer continues: "I've always wanted to experience a home World Cup as a coach. As a player, I was able to experience it once before, and it's something very special." It was a highlight in his ten years in this position, "and that's why it's the right time for me to hand over. I'm glad that we can now concentrate on the sport. It gives us clarity and peace of mind."
The fact that he is stepping down as coach after the home World Cup is an additional incentive for him: "It intensifies the whole thing. But we can't enjoy anything more than the moment," says Fischer, who has won World Championship silver three times as head coach and once as assistant. He therefore considers the title to be absolutely realistic. The decisive factor for him is to approach the whole thing with "joy, enthusiasm and the necessary lightness of touch", "then we are at our most dangerous. That is the challenge we have, because the distractions are greater".
Promoting the successor
The fact that Jan Cadieux will be his successor is due in no small part to him. Three days after he was dismissed from Genève-Servette at the end of December last year, he offered to assist him at the Euro Hockey Tour tournament in Langnau and Stockholm the following February.
Lars (Weibel, the Director of Sport at Swiss Ice Hockey) and he had been philosophizing for some time about who could be his successor, says Fischer. "Jan was always on the list." And so he was initially installed as U20 national coach. He also assisted Fischer at this year's World Championships.
"It's a stroke of luck for Swiss ice hockey to have someone in Jan who has been able to celebrate national and international success," says Fischer. "That's important for a team, then there's credibility. It's also an advantage that shouldn't be underestimated that we can experience three major tournaments together (the Winter Olympics will take place in Milan in February)." It has helped him enormously to have been able to assist Sean Simpson at two world championships.
Ice hockey virus in his blood
Jan Cadieux's successes include the 2023 championship title with Genève-Servette - the first ever for the club - and the Champions Hockey League triumph the following year. The 45-year-old Frenchman was infected by the ice hockey virus at an early age - his father is the late Paul-André Cadieux, who won the championship title three times as a player with SC Bern. In the nineties, he coached Fribourg-Gottéron with the legendary Russian duo Slava Bykov and Andrei Khomutov. Paul-André Cadieux was also once an assistant coach for the Swiss national team himself.
"My love of ice hockey comes from my father," says Jan Cadieux. He has already experienced a lot in this sport and now he is more interested in passing this on. He sees the fact that he will be following in big footsteps as an advantage: "Fischi has laid the foundations for a great future. My challenge is not to be better than him, but rather to develop Swiss ice hockey further."
When asked to what extent he is similar to Fischer and to what extent he is not, he replies analogously: "Like him, it is important to me that the players feel comfortable. The person behind the player is even more important than the hockey player himself. When they open up to me and tell me about their lives, that's the best thing in our business for me. If the players feel this attitude, they also have more motivation to join the national team."
He also calls for courageous ice hockey. The difference he sees is that he is sometimes a little more emotional than Fischi. It was immediately clear to Cadieux that he would accept the offer due to the trust he felt from the association. However, he emphasizes: "I never had a career plan, I really live from day to day." And he is currently still Patrick Fischer's assistant.
