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When Heiko Vogel (47) was first fired from FC Basel almost exactly eleven years ago, then chairman Bernhard Heusler (59) said a legendary sentence: “I want the FCB coach to shop in Freie Strasse.” Background: Vogel preferred to rest at home on days off rather than in the center of Basel.
If the German had shown himself on the shopping street in the city center at the time, even after his release, it cannot be ruled out that people would have carried him on their hands and walked to the market square cheering. Vogel was the crowd’s darling. Because he coached FCB to their century victory in the Champions League against Manchester United (2-1). Because he scored more than two points per game and has since been overtaken in this discipline only by Urs Fischer (57) and Patrick Framework (54). But he won hearts mainly thanks to his relaxed, casual manner – and with his statements. “On good days he does that,” Vogel said shortly after Markus Steinhöfer’s crossbar shot into his own goal in the game against Man Utd. And when he opened the press conference with the phrase “it went well” after the 7-0 defeat in the second leg of the round of 16 in Munich, the heavy wear and tear on the pitch was almost forgotten.
The successes obscured the fact that Vogel took over a team in flow from his predecessor Thorsten Fink (56) in the autumn of 2011, supported by local heroes Alex Frei (44), Marco Streller (42) and Beni Huggel (46). When Huggel resigned in the summer of 2012 and shooting stars Granit Xhaka (31) and Xherdan Shaqiri (32) left for the Bundesliga, Vogel’s decline also began. FCB failed in Champions League qualification. And in the background, leadership shortcomings emerged that led to Heusler and Co. were unpopularly dismissed in October 2012.
Vogel had a lot of power
This did little to change his popularity. With all the coaching changes, quite a few fans wanted Vogel to make a comeback. And when this became reality in the autumn of 2022 in the role of team leader, there was more applause than skepticism. That Vogel has never been a team leader? Free! That he no longer ignored the rules as a coach after the first dismissal at FCB? Wasn’t at FCB.
The club management around chairman David Degen gave the novice sports director a surprising amount of power. And Vogel immediately mercilessly cleared out the FCB nest: coach Alex Frei, on whose initiative the FCB comeback came about in the first place, head scout Max Legath (29), team planner Philipp Kaufmann (29) – shortly afterwards everyone was gone.
Although he effectively ended his coaching career, Vogel himself was on the sidelines. And it started to rise again: qualifying for the semi-finals of the Conference League! However: the coup obscured the slowdown in day-to-day Super League activities – under Vogel, FCB finished in a historically poor fifth place last season.
He shot the bird
Good. The Palatinate resident has since shot the bird. He initially refused to remain a long-term coach, despite pleas from players and club management. To then start counting Timo Schultz (46), whom he brought in, internally after just a few weeks. There is hardly any self-criticism after an adventurous transfer policy in the summer.
When Schultz had to leave at the end of September and the new coach was called Heiko Vogel again, his credibility was permanently gone. And the people’s anger eventually turned against him. From then on, a winning streak was the only thing that could save Vogel. But the plan to launch this in the supposedly easy first match against newly promoted Stade-Lausanne-Ouchy failed. 0:3. And since then: 0:3 against YB, 0:1 against Servette, 0:3 against Lausanne-Sport. After the latest debacle, Vogel’s credit has finally run out.
Upside-down world: After Vogel’s first dismissal in 2012, FCB fans took to the barricades. Eleven years later, they want nothing more from the club management. And there’s something else: Today, a walk down Freie Strasse would be like running the gauntlet for Vogel.
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team
|
SP
|
T.D
|
PT
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
 FC Zurich
|
12
|
13
|
24
|
|
|
2
|
 BSC Young Boys
|
11
|
11
|
22
|
|
|
3
|
 FC St. Gallen
|
12
|
7
|
21
|
|
|
4
|
 Napkin FC
|
12
|
1
|
19
|
|
|
5
|
 FC Lucerne
|
12
|
-2
|
18
|
|
|
6
|
 FC Lugano
|
11
|
2
|
16
|
|
|
7
|
 FC Winterthur
|
12
|
-1
|
16
|
|
|
8th
|
 Yverdon Sports FC
|
12
|
-5
|
16
|
|
|
9
|
 FC Lausanne Sport
|
12
|
-2
|
12
|
|
|
10
|
 Grasshopper Club Zurich
|
12
|
-4
|
11
|
|
|
11
|
 FC Stade Lausanne Ouchy
|
11
|
-8th
|
10
|
|
|
12
|
 FC Basel
|
11
|
-12
|
5
|
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
