The Swiss transfer market has yet to heat up. But the Super League clubs have made some reinforcements. We can look forward to seeing these five players.
Daniel Dos Santos: Lugano bring in Challenge League star
The attacking midfielder almost made it to the Super League without a transfer. Last season, Dos Santos and Thun lost out to GC in the barrage. The 21-year-old, who was voted the best player in the Challenge League at the start of the year, was then unstoppable for the Bernese Oberland club, where he has matured from junior to top scorer. He made his debut in the first team as an 18-year-old.
With ten goals and nine assists in the championship, Dos Santos definitely recommended himself for higher tasks last season. A transfer abroad was even discussed for the creative playmaker with scoring qualities. However, Lugano won the race for the two-footed Interlaken player with Portuguese roots. The Ticino side are said to have paid around one million francs for Dos Santos, who has featured regularly for the Swiss U21 team since last fall.
Nemanja Tosic: Jovic's godson - FCZ with a transfer coup
The 27-year-old Serbian is one of seven new players signed by sporting director Milos Malenovic for the start of the season. In the last two years, the left-back recommended himself at home with Cukaricki for tasks abroad. "I left a bigger mark than I could ever have hoped for," said Tosic on his departure from the Belgrade district of Cukarica.
Tosic joined Cukaricki in 2020 without much credit within the Serbian league and increased his market value to 2.5 million euros, putting him in the top 25 in the Super League in this respect. A top Hungarian club was also interested in him this summer, said the new signing, described by FCZ as strong and athletic, who has a famous godfather in striker Luka Jovic. In Zurich, Tosic should make the left-back from the FCZ championship team, Adrian Guerrero, forget.
Aleksandar Stankovic: The son of Inter legend is now in charge at FCL
Anyone who is a football fan and hears the name Stankovic thinks of Dejan and magnificent long-range shots. In Lucerne, the youngest son of the Inter legend, who retired ten years ago, is set to make a name for himself. In his first test match for the Central Swiss side, the 18-year-old defensive midfielder showed similar skills to his father, curling a free kick into the goal.
Aleksandar Stankovic has big shoes to fill, not only in his own family but also in Lucerne, as he is seen as the replacement for Ardon Jashari, who has been transferred to Belgium. The challenge does not scare him. Before he was loaned out to FCL, he was captain of Inter Milan's U19 team, and he is also a leading player in the Serbian junior national team. Thanks to videos and conversations with Federico Dimarco, once with Sion and now with Inter Milan, he prepared himself carefully for the Super League. It should be a springboard back to Milan.
Léo Leroy: a fresh start at FCB
The new Basel midfielder is also the son of a former professional footballer. He was born in February 2000, a few weeks after Jérôme Leroy moved to Olympique Marseille. The family left the south of France for Paris two years later, missing the arrival in Marseille of FC Basel coach Fabio Celestini by a few months.
Léo Leroy is a technically strong defensive midfielder who has not yet been able to fulfill his potential. At Montpellier, he was only a supplementary player in the last Ligue 1 season. He was said to be unable to confirm the good approaches he showed in training in matches. When the offer came from FCB, Leroy didn't have to think twice. One day after returning from his vacation in Japan, he made his way to Basel. He had already heard a lot about FCB. One or two of his former teammates played there, such as Jonas Omlin, who "told me a lot of good things about the club".
Nikolas Muci: Will he also score for GC?
The U21 international striker already has a good three hours of Super League football under his belt. As an 18-year-old, he made a few brief appearances for FC Lugano before being loaned out to Wil for two years. A return to Ticino, where he grew up, would have been difficult in footballing terms given the breadth of the Luganesi squad. At GC, however, which had the second weakest offense in the league last season in terms of goals scored, the 21-year-old Muci is a beacon of hope.
Scoring goals is Muci's core competence. In his two seasons in the Challenge League for FC Wil, he scored 19 times and set up six goals. The attacker, who was born in Lenzburg in the canton of Aargau, explains that he has a good nose for the ball, is often in the right place and likes to go for the finish. On his debut for the U21 national team last autumn, he scored with a side-footed shot from 16 meters. Muci cited "instinct" as the trigger for the brilliant move. He was able to train his unmistakable goal-scoring qualities with his brother: Alexander Muci, two years his senior, is a goalkeeper and has been with FC Wil since this summer.
