While champions Basel and Young Boys are lagging behind expectations, Thun and St. Gallen are flying high. A review of the Super League season so far.
22.12.2025, 15:55
22.12.2025, 20:01
SDA
The table situation
After 19 rounds, FC Thun lead the Super League with a three-point advantage over St. Gallen. Lugano in 3rd place is already seven points behind, while champions Basel and Young Boys are eight and eleven points behind the Bernese Oberlanders respectively. Sion, which like Lausanne, Servette and Winterthur has played one game less than the rest of the league, closes the top half of the table.
There is a four-point difference between FC Zurich, who lead the second half of the table, three points behind Sion, and Servette in 10th place. Grasshoppers are three points behind Geneva in the barrage place, while Winterthur are already ten points adrift of the "safety zone".
The surprises
Anyone who predicted before the season that Thun would go into the winter break as leaders would have been denied any footballing expertise. However, the newly promoted team won 13 matches with bold attacking football. No team won more often than Thun, no team scored more goals. The lead, which was comfortable at one point, has melted to three points. Nevertheless, those responsible are confident. Coach Mauro Lustrinelli told SRF after the 4:2 win against FCZ: "If we have the chance to play for the championship title, we will play for the championship title."
Leader Thun's first rivals are St. Gallen. Under coach Enrico Maassen, the team from eastern Switzerland have made astonishing progress and learned the lessons of the previous season, when they missed out on the championship round. St. Gallen have eleven points more in their account than at the same point in the previous season. "The plan has more than worked out. 37 points are outstanding," said captain Lukas Görtler, adding with a grin: "If we do the job well, we'll see where it takes us. If you want to dream, you can dream." The third league title in the club's history seems possible. It would be the first in 26 years.
The disappointments
It is hardly surprising that a team from the canton of Bern is leading the Super League at the winter break. However, it is surprising that it comes from the Oberland and not the capital. Young Boys wanted to regain their supremacy in Swiss club football after a disastrous previous season. However, both Giorgio Contini and his successor Gerardo Seoane failed to bring any consistency to the team's performances. Good performances were usually followed by inexplicable performances, and most recently YB put in a disastrous display in the 2:6 home defeat against Grasshoppers and the 0:3 defeat in Lugano. "We will review the first half of the season and then try to make the right adjustments. It's possible that one or two impulses from outside will be necessary," said Christoph Spycher, Chief Sports at YB and the man primarily responsible for putting together the squad.
The champions and cup winners from Basel are also lacking the consistency of the previous season. The main reason for this is Xherdan Shaqiri. While the returnee contributed 21 goals and 22 assists in 39 games in the league in the previous season, he now has six goals and eight assists after 19 games. Not a bad ratio by any means, but not as outstanding as in the previous season. Shaqiri's current creative crisis is symbolized by the three missed penalties that the 34-year-old recently missed. Defending the title is still possible. But to become champions again, FCB will need a Shaqiri in the form of the previous season after the winter break.
Caught the eye
The experienced Christian Fassnacht and Chris Bedia lead the scoring charts with eleven goals each. However, the young guard also caused a sensation. Jonathan Asp Jensen (Grasshoppers) and Lucas Ferreira (Lucerne), who are only 19, have six goals for the season, as has Franz-Ethan Meichtry (Thun), who is a year older. They have only been overshadowed by Alessandro Vogt, St. Gallen's shooting star and the new discovery of the season so far. In the pre-season, the striker mainly played for the U21 side from Eastern Switzerland in the 1st division. The 20-year-old now has ten goals and five assists in 22 games for the professionals in all competitions. Vogt has become an integral part of the St. Gallen offense and is one of the main reasons for the strong first half of the season.
Not everywhere was the mood in the fall as good as in St. Gallen. A third of the Super League clubs have already changed their coach. The shortest fuse was in Geneva, where Servette released Thomas Häberli after just two match days. In October, three more coach changes followed within eleven days: In Winterthur, Uli Forte was followed by Patrick Rahmen, who returned to the club. FCZ first installed Dennis Hediger on an interim basis to replace Mitchell van der Gaag, before appointing him as permanent coach shortly before Christmas at the same time as releasing sporting director Milos Malenovic. And finally, they also ran out of patience with Giorgio Contini in Bern and signed Gerardo Seoane instead, who had left YB for the Bundesliga in 2021 after winning three league titles. There was no noticeable upswing for either team. Servette climbed one place under Jocelyn Gourvennec, as did FCZ under Hediger, while Winterthur and YB stagnated in the table.
Outlook
The Super League resumes on January 14, when the Léman derby between Servette and Lausanne in Geneva and the Sion-Winterthur match in Valais will be replayed. 14 rounds will be played before the division of the league, before the champions and the European Cup participants in the Championship Group and the relegated teams and the barrage participants in the Relegation Group are determined in five further rounds.
