FC Basel is making a spectacular change of coach. A few hours after Ludovic Magnin's dismissal, the Swiss champions present Stephan Lichtsteiner as his successor.
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- A few hours after Ludovic Magnin was dismissed, FC Basel presented his successor as head coach.
- The 42-year-old Stephan Lichtsteiner signed a contract until the summer of 2029. The former Swiss international was already active in FCB's youth academy between February 2022 and summer 2024. Most recently, he coached the first division team FC Wettswil-Bonstetten.
The 42-year-old Lichtsteiner signed a contract until the summer of 2029, as FC Basel announced on Monday evening. Together with the 108-time former Swiss international, Pascal Bader will also join FCB as assistant coach.
In Lichtsteiner, the Basel team led by Head of Sport Daniel Stucki has signed a Swiss football personality who stands for success and a winning mentality like no other. The former right-back won the league seven times and the cup five times with Juventus Turin. He also reached the final of the Champions League twice with Italy's record champions. During his career, he also played for Grasshoppers, Lille, Lazio Rome and, most recently, Arsenal.
Lichtsteiner's career as a coach is less impressive. His still short career as a coach has taken him from assistant positions in Kriens and with the Swiss U18 team to the juniors of FC Basel and the head position at first division club Wettswil-Bonstetten to the FC Basel professional team.
Earlier than planned
Lichtsteiner's past at FCB was not the least of his advantages. "We already know Stephan from the youth department, and I worked with him directly for over two years. He has a great understanding of tactics and has always known how to get his teams involved and make them better as a collective," Daniel Stucki was quoted as saying in the press release.
The FCB coaches since 2009
- Stephan Lichtsteiner (CH): January 2026 - ?
- Ludovic Magnin (CH): June 2025 - January 2026
- Fabio Celestini (CH/ITA): October 2023 - June 2025
- Heiko Vogel (GER): September 2023 - October 2023
- Timo Schultz (GER): June 2023 - September 2023
- Heiko Vogel (GER) (interim): February 2023 - June 2023
- Alex Frei (CH): June 2022 - February 2023
- Guillermo Abascal (ESP) (interim): February 2022 - June 2022
- Patrick Rahmen (CH): April 2021 - February 2022
- Ciriaco Sforza (CH): September 2020 - April 2021
- Marcel Koller (CH): August 2018 - August 2020
- Raphael Wicky (CH): July 2017 - July 2018
- Urs Fischer (CH): July 2015 - June 2017
- Paulo Sousa (CH): July 2014 - June 2015
- Murat Yakin (CH): October 2012 - June 2014
- Heiko Vogel (GER): October 2011 - October 2012
- Thorsten Fink (GER): July 2009 - October 2011
Lichtsteiner admits that his career planning did not include the jump from Wettswil-Bonstetten to FC Basel and that the move "came a little earlier than planned". Nevertheless, "it was natural for me to accept this challenge at this great club now, as the situation has arisen in this way."
The two home games this week against Viktoria Pilsen at the end of the Europa League group stage on Thursday and against Super League leaders Thun on Sunday are two extremely important matches. A win against Pilsen is needed to possibly advance to the knockout round, and with a ten-point deficit to Thun, a win against the Bernese Oberland side is almost a must.
Stucki hopes that Lichtsteiner's famous winning mentality will quickly help FC Basel to get back on track. Otherwise, the signing of the former captain of the Swiss national team is above all an investment in the future. Under Ludovic Magnin, the decision-makers at FC Basel saw too little progress. After mixed performances towards the end of last year, the hoped-for turnaround failed to materialize, the club explained the dismissal on Monday morning.
The win against FCZ no longer helped
Former left-back Magnin, who made 16 appearances for Switzerland with Lichtsteiner between 2006 and 2010, was no longer helped by the fact that his team celebrated a spectacular 4:3 victory away to Zurich on Sunday and that captain Xherdan Shaqiri had publicly spoken out in support of the coach.
The 46-year-old joined the double winners this season from Lausanne-Sport. He had to cope with his first disappointment right at the start when his team failed to qualify for the Champions League in a clash with Copenhagen. Things did not go according to plan in the second-tier Europa League either.
In particular, the poor performance in the recent 3-1 defeat in Salzburg is likely to have led to the club's decision to rely on Lichtsteiner for the second half of the season. The poor results in recent home games in the championship have also been a talking point: four draws and one defeat in the last five games at St. Jakob-Park.
"As things stand today, we can still achieve some of our goals," said sporting director Stucki, whose FCB is also still in the running for the cup. "That's why we decided to take this step, which is anything but easy for us." Magnin enjoyed a lot of sympathy in and around the club due to his open manner.
Fifth dismissal in the Super League
Magnin is the fifth coach to be dismissed this Super League season. Previously, Thomas Häberli (Servette), Uli Forte (Winterthur), Mitchell van der Gaag (Zurich) and Giorgio Contini (YB) were relieved of their duties. Magnin had the highest points average of the five coaches with 1.71 points per game.
