The Nottingham Forest outcast who inspired a famous Euros win

30/06/2024

THERE IS more football on TV than ever, but one of the welcome aspects of major tournaments is that they can make heroes out of players who weren’t exactly household names beforehand.

It was the case at the last World Cup with certain Morocco players.

And this time around, Switzerland are the team who are surprising many and overachieving to a degree.

Premier League fans will be well aware already of top players like Bayer Leverkusen’s Granit Xhaka, Man City’s Manuel Akanji and Newcastle’s Fabian Schär.

Yet one of their unsung heroes at this tournament is another less well-known player, albeit one also currently on the books of a Premier League team.

Remo Freuler was key to the country’s stunning 2-0 win over holders Italy today.

The 32-year-old opened the scoring the opener with a clinical and brilliant finish, even if was aided by a slight deflection.

Freuler has been involved in three of their seven goals at the tournament so far, yet people who are not big fans of the Swiss national team or Serie A may not be familiar with the name.

He typifies the type of footballer who can go under the radar at club level but seems to acquire an extra level when he takes to the pitch in international games.

The classy midfielder lasted just one season in the Premier League — making 24 starts for a Nottingham Forest side in the 2022-23 season who finished 16th in the table, just four points above the relegation zone.

Perhaps partially affected by the high turnover and instability at the newly promoted English club, Freuler struggled to make a substantial impact.

He remains technically a Forest player but is unlikely to wear their colours again.

Last season, he recovered well from this setback, making 32 appearances on loan at Bologna, who finished an impressive fifth in Serie A, above Roma, Lazio and Fiorentina, and just seven points off AC Milan in second.

And that one season at Forest feels like an anomaly to what has been an outstanding career overall.

That said, Freuler’s ascent to the top level has been unconventional.

He was nearly 24 years old when he first left Swiss league football behind and moved to Italy, joining Atalanta.

He had previously been frozen out as a youngster at Grasshoppers and reinvigorated his career in the second tier at Winterthur between 2011 and 2014.

And Freuler did not make his international debut until a month before his 25th birthday.

He was also not instantaneously an automatic starter for his country. At the 2018 World Cup, when the Swiss reached the last 16, Freuler was an unused sub for all four matches.

Yet by Euro 2020, he had nailed down a starting spot and played in all five of their matches including the shock round-of-16 win against France.

Freuler may not have captured the imagination during his brief Premier League stint, but his performance this afternoon likely won’t have come as a surprise to many Italian fans.

During six and a half seasons with Atalanta, the midfielder earned the nickname ‘Iceman,’ owing to his impressive composure on the ball.

And despite taking a long time to make his debut, Freuler now has 71 caps for his country.

Like Xhaka, Akanji, Schär and several other highly experienced members of their squad, Freuler is more or less part of the furniture at this stage.

While a desperate Italy team in disarray made six changes going into this afternoon’s crucial match, the Swiss played like a well-oiled machine — and the contrast between the two in terms of organisation was conspicuous.

Moreover, in the past, the round of 16 would have been perceived as Switzerland’s ceiling at major tournaments.

Indeed, they have exited at that stage in four of the last five World Cups, while the last time they reached the quarter-finals was in 1954 when they hosted the tournament.

They have not fared much better at the Euros either — 2020 was the first time they made it as far as the quarter-finals.

In what was arguably the biggest game of their modern history, Freuler was controversially sent off as they exited on penalties after a 1-1 draw with Spain.

Now, Freuler has a chance to exorcise those ghosts as the Swiss seek a historic semi-final spot.

Like the player, his country have gone under the radar in the build-up to this tournament with few people tipping them to make a substantial impact.

Yet they will either face a side that has overperformed (Slovakia) or underperformed (England) at this tournament, and based on today’s display, they should fancy their chances against either.

A victory against the English would be especially sweet for Freuler, as it would allow him to show the country where he has bad memories at club level to give a glimpse of what they are missing.

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