It almost threatened to be forgotten after his job at Schalke: Christian Gross was the mastermaker par excellence for years. He shaped generations of players. Today he turns 70. Companions remember him.
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- Christian Gross celebrates his 70th birthday today, Wednesday. Switzerland's most successful coach has held no office since stepping down as a member of the FCB board in 2022.
- Gross is now in his second marriage and lives in the Engadin. However, he still follows football with great passion. But he no longer wants to talk about it in public.
- Others do the talking for him: Gross' companions Benjamin Huggel, Marcel Koller, Georg Heitz, Pascal Zuberbühler, Mats Gren and Gusti Nussbaumer tell blue Sport the best anecdotes about Gross and congratulate him on his milestone birthday.
The video has long been part of Swiss football's cultural heritage. Christian Gross gently criticizes his famous playmaker during the half-time break of the second leg of the Uefa Intertoto Cup final (yes, there was still such a thing back then!) against Aston Villa in 2001: "Hakan, don't be so selfish! You could play the double pass with George (Koumantarakis, the ed.) once." The man in question, Hakan Yakin, takes a different view, grumbles and grumbles. But Gross remains confident. Says what he meant. "Hakaaaan! As a suggestion, but not as criticism." Although FCB loses 1:4, it then takes off and wins eight titles over the next eight years under the Zurich head coach.
More than 20 years later, Gross' bon mot is still on everyone's lips. Nati coach Murat Yakin, the brother of the criticized player, even referred to it recently when he assessed a statement by Granit Xhaka: "I took it as a suggestion, not as criticism," said Yakin. The room laughed.
Gusti Nussbaumer, FC Basel's long-serving team manager, said: "Until the very end, the phrases he drilled into the players were still being used on the training pitch. Be compact, be focused - anyone who played under Gross never forgets that."
Christian Gross turns 70 today. He looks back on dazzling decades. He was a professional, including at GC and Bochum. But above all, he was a coach for 33 years. He won 15 titles with GC and Basel, in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. But Gross was more than just goals, points and titles. He set the style for generations. World star Ivan Rakitic once said: "He showed me what it means to be a professional."
"It's also about the coin"
Many think so. Including Benjamin Huggel, who played under Gross for eight years. "He stressed everyone at FCB in a positive way. He always told us: the result counts. The titles count. Or in his words: Gentlemen, it's also about the coin. And last but not least, the business card." The business card! A key word from Gross. He regularly had business cards printed for the players, listing the titles that each player had already won. With a younger player, he would sometimes say in a motivating and provocative manner: "Young man, don't you want something written on it?"
Huggel, the current SRF pundit, remembers: "When he came to Basel in 1999, he had already won titles with GC, played in the Champions League and managed to stay in the league with Tottenham. He initially accused us of being too frugal. Along the lines of: You Basel people are happy enough when it's carnival time and 40,000 fans come every now and then. But what's that worth if we don't win?"
Gross could be strict, relentless. If a player was sitting in Zurich's Kaufleuten late at night, it could happen that the waiter would ask him to come to the phone and the player on the other end of the line would hear the coach say in sharp Zurich dialect: "Sie gönd jetzt hei!" Huggel says: "He already had us well under control." And when the equipment manager ate an ice cream at the training camp against the rules, the head coach didn't miss it either. "It would be a shame, Roger, if there were suddenly ice cream stains on your nice T-shirt."
But Gross was also always one thing: very human. "He also looked after the players' wives. He invited them over and always gave them presents at Christmas. That was unique," says Huggel. He devotedly looked after his sister, who was suffering from cancer, until her death. And if a player had personal problems, his door was always open.
Gusti Nussbaumer, himself an FCB veteran, says: "Christian was a very caring coach. And he could also let things slide when a player went over the top." The fact that he occasionally ordered his players to visit orphanages fits well into the picture.
A great coaching career
Gross not only demands respect, he also exemplifies it. And consistency. When the FCB management organized a big party for his 50th birthday in 2004, he had long since made other plans. A marquee was rented, shirts with Gross' portrait were printed, President Werner Edelmann gave a speech, and patron Gigi Oeri sponsored a large fireworks display with musical accompaniment. Gross, however, was absent because he stuck to his original plans. At some point, Huggel jumped up, put on a Gross shirt and parodied the coach in front of the assembled staff with a speech of thanks. Huggel still laughs about it today. "But that doesn't change my huge appreciation for him in the slightest."
Anyone who knows him knows that Gross also has a sense of humor, a lot of it in fact. Huggel says: "When we played 5 against 2 with him, he would make great comments. And when a pass from him went badly, he would just say: Beni Huggel, an international player has to be able to handle a ball like that! You could laugh with him." Georg Heitz agrees: "Gross has an excellent sense of humor."
Heitz experienced Gross from two perspectives: as a young journalist for the Basler Zeitung. And later as one of his successors in a position of sporting responsibility. "He was the one who brought ambition to Basel. And with every day as sports director, my respect for what Gross achieved grew."
"Are you still in the right job?"
Incidentally, an episode has long been forgotten when the slightly provocative question "Christian Gross, are you still in the right job?" appeared above an article by Heitz after a 1:8 in Sion in 2001. The fact that Heitz had not set the title himself, but rather his colleagues on the editorial team, did not really appease the coach at first. "But afterwards he was immediately professional and confident again." And Gross was much more than a great motivator who captivated the players emotionally, Heitz emphasizes: "He was also very strong tactically. Always in tune with the times."
His unbridled ambition also impressed players who had already celebrated success before Gross. Like Marcel Koller or Mats Gren at GC in the early 90s. Koller says: "With Christian, there was only ever one thing: winning. He always did everything for that. And he himself always led the way." Whereas his prominent predecessor Leo Beenhakker did not focus too much on fighting, Gross teases out everything that is in the team - even with unpopular means. Gren explains: "He was very strict and demanding right from the start. He barracked us for two nights before the home games in the Champions League. Sleeping in a hotel twice before a home game? We were a bit angry. But our respect was far too great for us to dare say anything."
Pascal Zuberbühler is still on friendly terms with Gross today. Their paths first crossed in the early 90s, when Zuberbühler was a young goalkeeper at FC Frauenfeld and Gross was player-coach at FC Wil. "He was already a hugely respected person back then. Our knees always shook a little when he came forward for a corner kick." Later, they celebrated titles and triumphs with GC and Basel. Most recently, Gross accompanied Zuberbühler, now a FIFA employee, to the Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia. "Christian was already besieged on the tarmac. Coach Gross! Coach Gross! I've never experienced that before. And later, Egyptian fans also wanted to take photos with him. His achievements at Al Ahli, where he was champion and cup winner, or Zamalek, where he won the Confederation Cup (the African equivalent of the Europa League, ed.) are far too little appreciated in Switzerland. Asserting yourself on other continents, in other cultures - that's a huge achievement."
The federation has not canceled him to this day
Where Gross was, there was almost always success. He only experienced disappointment in Bern and at Schalke. Whereby Schalke was considered a hopeless case that any coach would have burned their fingers on - in addition to Gross, there were another three in the 2020/21 season.
However, he was annoyed to have been sacked in Bern after just ten months. And the early dismissal was probably also the reason why Vladimir Petkovic was chosen over him as national team coach in 2014. The association also held talks with Gross. Incidentally, he has still not been dismissed.
Zuberbühler was Gross' goalkeeping coach in Bern. Looking back, he says: "We lacked support. People got nervous far too quickly. Christian wanted to take the club forward step by step. But he wasn't given the time. I'm sure it would have been a success story if there had been a little more patience."
Gross is now in his second marriage and lives in the Engadin. He no longer holds any office following his retirement as a member of the board of directors of FC Basel 2022. However, he still follows football with great passion. But he no longer wants to talk about it publicly. Happy birthday, Christian Gross!
