He was captain – sports director Haas and coach Berner also experienced the festive period in England: GC president Jackson played against Rooney and Ronaldo on Boxing Day

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After Christmas, the football fields on the GC campus in Niederhasli ZH will be icy and hardly a ball will leave its mark. The Hoppers’ training sessions for the second half of the season will start on January 2. While the training facilities of Swiss Super League clubs traditionally remain quiet during the holidays, there is a lot of activity in another part of Europe: more specifically in England, the motherland of football.

Once again this year, the English can only go one day without football at Christmas: the match between Wolverhampton and Chelsea took place on December 24, the only Christmas day is on December 25 and the ball rolls again on December 26 (see box). ).

Matt Jackson, GC’s 52-year-old president, knows all about what’s happening in his home country this time of year. He was captain of Wigan Athletic in the Premier League and as a player was often on the field the day after Christmas, December 26, the legendary Boxing Day. He looks back on this special time with great pleasure: “It’s actually a fantastic feeling to win as a team, because you make a lot of sacrifices during the Christmas period.” But?

21-year-old Ronaldo shot the current GC president

Boxing Day also has its pitfalls, says Jackson. The game planners ensured that matches were scheduled geographically close to each other. Wigan is located in the northwest of England. The obvious opponent? The two Manchester clubs. «Well, we didn’t see much of the ball at Christmas. But it’s still a great time to play,” enthuses Jackson. There was a 3-1 defeat to great Manchester United on December 26, 2006 at Old Trafford in front of 76,000 fans. Goalscorer at the time? A certain Cristiano Ronaldo, 21, achieved double success within five minutes after being substituted at half-time for the team around Rooney, Scholes, Evra, Van der Sar and everyone else at ManUtd.

But GC President Jackson also knows what it’s like not to get under the wheels on Boxing Day. A year earlier, on December 26, 2005, he celebrated a 4-3 home win against Manchester City with Wigan. “It is a special time, normally you train on the morning of Christmas Day. But that’s nice if you have children: you don’t have to sit with the toys the kids gave you all day,” says Jackson with a wink.

38,000 spectators in the third highest division

Fascination with Boxing Day? This is a great place to talk about at GC. The entire Hoppers leadership trio was on the field in England. There is sports director Bernt Haas (45), a 36-time Swiss national player, who had to go to the bottom just after Christmas with Sunderland in the Premier League (2001-02) and with West Bromwich, one league lower. “It’s almost like a cult that the games are sold out there,” he remembers.

Coach Bruno Berner (46), 16-time Swiss international, is also familiar with the hype that prevails in the English stadiums immediately after Christmas. «This experience was phenomenal. Boxing Days was highly anticipated. “The atmosphere is just different: more lively and ‘festive’,” he recalled in Blick two years ago. On December 27, 2007, exactly, he completed one of his three Premier League appearances, playing away to Man City, fighting to a 2-2 draw and swapping jerseys with ex-Nati star Gelson Fernandes.

The following year, Berner was just as impressed: ‘A year later, on December 26, 2008, I played with Leicester City against Leeds (1-1) in front of 38,000 spectators, mind you in League One, the third highest division. .” If there’s a Super League leading trio to talk about Boxing Days, it’s the GC leading trio.

Source : Blick