Marco Streller was once a striker for the Swiss national team and over ten years ago, like many other ex-footballers, he discovered a new passion in padel, which he says was "love at first sight".
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- Marco Streller is driving the padel trend with his company "Padelwerk", which now operates 67 courts in 15 Swiss locations - sparked by his enthusiasm after his first contact with the sport in Marbella over ten years ago.
- Padel is particularly popular with former professional footballers, as the sport is quick to learn, involves a lot of movement and is competition-oriented, which appeals to ex-athletes.
- Streller continues to see great growth potential in Switzerland, as many people are still unfamiliar with the sport and 90 percent of first-time players return - individual courts are also gaining in popularity.
Padel tennis has been booming in Switzerland for years. Former professional footballer Marco Streller is partly responsible for the fact that halls are springing up like mushrooms. The 37-time international is co-founder of Padelwerk, which has 67 padel courts at 15 locations in Switzerland. The blue Sport expert explains that he first came into contact with padel over 10 years ago at a training camp in Marbella: "It was love at first sight because it was so much fun." He then came to Switzerland and realized: "It doesn't exist here."
Now we meet Streller in one of the Padelwerk halls in Pratteln. He has called up three other ex-professional footballers for the game, which is always played 2-on-2: Former Nati goalie Diego Benaglio forms a goalkeeping duo with Patrick Abatangelo (formerly of Lugano, Aarau). Streller plays alongside Markus Neumayr (formerly Thun, Vaduz, Luzern).
Padel is generally very popular with ex-footballers, including amateurs. Streller can explain why this is the case: "It's like a new sport, there are new movements and it can still be very explosive. If you have a bit of talent with ball sports, you can get into it very quickly." Padel has elements of tennis and squash, but it also requires a certain degree of agility, which most footballers also have, Streller summarizes, adding: "If you can get better at something very quickly, then it's automatically fun."
90 percent of those who play for the first time come back
Basically, padel has a very low barrier to entry: "It's very easy to learn, because of the walls where the ball always comes back, you often have the ball on the racket."
That's why even people who are playing for the first time soon have rallies: "If you quickly realize that you're successful at something new that you're doing, you're happy to do it. It's easier than in other sports to get to a better level," says Streller.
The 43-year-old does not think that the padel hype has already peaked: "We believe that the padel potential is far from exhausted. We have comparative figures from Sweden, for example, where the peak has been reached. But they have around ten times as many halls as we do."
Above all, the market potential in Switzerland is still immense: "There are still people who don't know about padel." The analysis also found that: "90% of people who play for the first time come back. I believe that the demand is even greater than the supply."
In addition to the classic doubles courts, the singles courts are also increasingly in demand, as Streller explains: "This 1 versus 1 is not yet so familiar in Switzerland, but we have noticed that it works incredibly well because you have even more competition, which we ex-athletes simply need."
Incidentally, the Streller/Neumayr duo won the competition in Pratteln. The rematch is sure to be coming up soon.
