Fabio Celestini, FC Basel's celebrated double coach, is moving on - not to Spain or Italy, but to Moscow of all places. A move that raises more questions than answers.
ZSKA Moscow is the name of Fabio Celestini's new employer - the 49-year-old signed a two-year contract on Friday with an option for a further season.
"I'm very happy and excited," Celestini wrote on the (army) club's Instagram channel. A great challenge awaits him. "I want to start making history at this big club," he said. He is presented with a red and blue scarf. "The colors are the same, but it's something totally different," says Celestini.
Always thinking outside the box
In fact, the contrast could not be greater. The eloquent Romand, who has always been surrounded by a Latin warmth, is moving from Basel to the Russian metropolis. From a culturally enthusiastic city, which recently hosted the Eurovision Song Contest with great enthusiasm, to Vladimir Putin's center of power. As a reminder, the Russian head of state attacked Ukraine in February 2022. The facts are clear: Russia, as the aggressor, is responsible for the war that has raged between the two countries ever since.
Celestini is a man who likes to broaden his horizons and get to know new cultures - partly due to his family background. Unlike many in the profession, this sensitive contemporary has always maintained that he also has a life outside of the football cosmos. Celestini is passionate about dancing, for example.
However, his transfer is a tightrope act in which a fall is inevitable. Celestini has certainly been given a golden parachute - with princely wages from ZSKA - but the 35-time international is unlikely to be placed in a top league after his crude adventure in the Tsarist Empire.
A relegation in sporting terms
Celestini always emphasized how big his dream was to be able to train in Spain or Italy one day. The former midfielder was well on his way there: after head coach positions in Lausanne, Lugano, Lucerne and Sion, he ended up in Basel. And wrote a fairytale at the knee of the Rhine - Celestini led the team from the bottom of the table to the double. The football-loving city was at his feet - the Champions League was within reach for the tactical fox like never before in his career.
It would have been a milestone for the Vaud native, who often felt underestimated and sometimes misunderstood in both his playing and coaching careers. Instead, he is now working for a club that has been banned from European competitions due to UEFA sanctions. For an ambitious man with big dreams, this is more than incomprehensible. Celestini has a tattoo of guerrilla revolutionary and freedom fighter Che Guevara on his left upper arm.
"I fight for something I believe in, something I feel is a part of me. Che had this belief too. He fought, he worked. He was not a madman, but a man of culture. Just like Fidel Castro. They fought for their values to make a difference," he says, reflecting on his body jewelry.
What righteous battle for a better cause Celestini now wants to fight in Moscow is a mystery. The former midfield strategist, who was always one step ahead on the pitch, seems to outsiders to have simply followed the call of money. His public image has taken a 180-degree turn. It is unlikely that he will be able to shed his new image in the future. It's not as simple as wearing a scarf. Because Celestini is right: not all red and blue is the same.
