It also goes the other way round. Swiss hockey teams are now called Tigers, Lions, Flyers, Sharks, and, most appaling, LAKERS! And there is a minor league club called HC Red Ice. WTF? All I'm saying is that sports marketing goes weird ways.

I thought you were a troll!

Labelling them the best footballers of the world is correct, yet a misunderstanding. Philipp Lahm of FC Bayern Munich could equally be described as the best player in the world, or at least runner-up, but he does not play in the spotlight but behind the scenes.

Go home, troll ;)

Not true, the difference is Nati has a very short a and Nazi is more like Naaaazi. True story and very important. I remember getting shouted at when I was a child for confusing the spelling (being a German speaking Swiss with German heritage and some experience with actual Nazis surely did not help)

Honestly, looking back at the last 25 years of Swiss soccer, can't you understand each and every Swiss footballer who decided to play for another country he was eligible for?

also, you're not quite right. Five or six players grew up in the French speaking parts and two (Behrami, Gavranovic) in the Italian speaking part. Look at their youth teams on Wikipedia, their names are heavily misleading ;)

well, what is Swiss then? All of the guys with foreign names grew up in Switzerland, their parents or, in some cases, grandparents immigrated. That is a very Swiss thing. Nearly no Swiss have pure lineage without foreigners.

Yes and no. At the moment, out of 10 teams in the highest league, only one (Lausanne) is from the French speaking area and they came in ninth. In the second highest league, three teams are from the Italian speaking area, which is some sort of over-representation. The other traditional French speaking club went…

Granit. I mean GRANIT! All the Peters and Petras in this world can go home when he shows up.

1-2. Used to drink about 5 but my new job has no espresso machine, and any other way of coffee making is too much effort.

1-2. Used to drink about 5 but my new job has no espresso machine, and any other way of coffee making is too much…

As a European, I just cannot call this coffee. Coffeiny drink? Yes. And effective at that. But my coffee comes out of this:

As a European, I just cannot call this coffee. Coffeiny drink? Yes. And effective at that. But my coffee comes out…

More like a suggestion: Put the Submit button somewhere else, or allow Enter as Submit.

Thank you for writing this post! I am kind of a soccer tactics geek, read some of the blogs of the community, and watch out how they defend whenever I see a game. Yet it is quite unique to hear from an actual professional soccer player how he sees it :)

He should go and play in Europe. Not as much money, and not as big a stadium, but still much money and big stadiums. And way more addicted fan bases. Might be fun for a year or two.

Eh, that shit can be dangerous as fuck. Emiliano Dudar, who played for DC United two years ago, swallowed his tongue when playing for the Young Boys of Bern, Switzerland (yes, it's their actual name. Yes, they play at the Wankdorf. Yes, that is also true. Why yes, the best soccer matches here are always against…

Well, maybe.

Correlation does not imply causation. Period.

You basically suggest extra points should be moved in time? Might be fun. I suggest all extra points to be taken at the end. Imagine a soccer-style penalty shootout in close games. Would be fun.

Here's a blog post in German that discusses a similar study: http://www.sprachlog.de/2011/12/14/fra…