Most successful coaches in Swiss football: Big, bigger, big!

The wonder coach only in 20th place? This is mainly because he only worked for the NLA for seven years and then celebrated his greatest successes in Germany. For the fans of FC Aarau, whom he coached to the first and only cup victory in club history in 1985, Hitzfeld is certainly not alone in 20th place, the same applies to the GC supporters. With the team from Zurich he became champion and cup winner twice.

When Soviet forces invaded Hungary in 1956, he used a trip to Western Europe for the Hungarian junior team to ‘escape’. His new home: Geneva. First he was a successful player there, then a successful coach. Under him, Servette became champion once and cup winner twice. He died in Geneva in 2012 at the age of 73.

Yes, admittedly: Mathez had the worst points average as FCB coach since the introduction of the Super League, until a certain Timo Schultz from Germany showed up for a short guest game with the red-blue team. But because Mathez had previously become champion (1985) and cup winner (1984) with Servette, the French-speaking Swiss was just enough to make it into our top 20.

When La Chaux-de-Fonds were among the best in Swiss football after the Second World War, he was their (player) coach. His impressive record: two championship titles and six cup victories (one of which with FCB). In total, Sobotka played 500 games as NLA coach in Switzerland.

“Bidu” only managed to win one title as a coach (champion with GC 2000/01), but because he has the twelfth best points average of all coaches, the former Swiss interim national coach reached 16th place. He now works as sports director at FC Solothurn.

The German’s short stay in Switzerland (two years in Basel and one year in the rankings) also proved to be his downfall in this ranking. In these three seasons, Fink left his mark and became champions with FCB in 2010 and 2011 and cup winners in 2010.

With five titles, the French-speaking Swiss is one of the most successful coaches of all time. Master builder Maurer managed to win titles with three different teams: with Zurich (twice champion, once cup winner), with Lugano (once cup winner) and with Lausanne (also once cup winner).

For GC fans, Forte definitely doesn’t belong on this list. When he won the cup with the Hoppers in 2013, he promised not to abandon “his sheep”. Shortly afterwards he signed with YB. Won his second title: cup victory with GC arch-enemy FCZ in 2016.

Our current national coach has already coached five teams in the Super League: Thun, Luzern, Basel, GC and Sion. But he only celebrated success with the red-blue team: champions in 2013 and 2014.

Everyone who likes Seoane says: What a successful trainer! Everyone who doesn’t like him says: Anyone could have become champion with YB. The fact is: Seoane won the championship hat-trick with the Bernese between 2019 and 2021, plus the cup victory in 2020. With a Super League points average of 2.26, he is alone in first place in this list.

Before Seoane became a YB coach, he was the most successful YB coach of all time. With the Bernese team, the German won four championship titles in a row and the Cup twice (1953 and 1958) between 1957 and 1960. Sing was also coach of St. Gallen when they celebrated their only cup victory to date in 1969.

As a player he scored the first goal in Bundesliga history for Borussia Dortmund, and as a (player) coach he won six titles with FC Zürich (three-time champion and cup winner) and the championship title with GC in 1982.

When it came to Ottmar Hitzfeld, we wrote that he would be much higher in the rankings among Aarau fans. The same certainly applies to Fringer, who sensationally led FCA to the championship title in 1993. Five years later he was also allowed to lift the bucket with GC.

Wow! Between 1967 and 1980 he became Swiss champion seven times and cup winner twice with FC Basel, first as a player-coach and then as a coach. Understandably, Benthaus is still a legend in Basel today.

No other coach has won more titles in Switzerland than the Austrian, let’s take a breath: five times champion with classification, three times with Servette, once with Lausanne and seven times cup winner with classification and once with Servette. And his 679 games as coach are also a record.

When the Zuricher native became Basel’s coach in 2015, not all fans were happy with his contract, but when his contract was not renewed after two years, all supporters had long liked him. That was because of his style and the titles he won: champion in 2016 and even the double in 2017.

The French-speaking region is not very far ahead in all three of our individual rankings, but it is also quite far ahead everywhere else. As a result, he narrowly missed the podium. His Swiss successes: twice champions with FC Zürich (2006 and 07) and once each with FCZ (2005) and Servette (2001).

Opinions differ about him. To some he is a cult, to others an overrated trainer. But as we all know, the facts don’t lie: 575 matches, twice champions with Xamax (1987 and 1988) and cup winners with Zurich (2000). And voila!

Like Gress, Koller has also won three titles: champion with St. Gallen in 2000 and overall in 2003 and cup winner with Basel in 2019. But because the Zurich native can only play half as many games as a coach, he is just ahead of Gres.

Big, bigger, big! There couldn’t be a clearer winner. Although Karl Rappan has won more titles than Gross, who won eleven trophies with Basel and the rankings, Gross has a significantly better points average and is therefore a deserved and very clear number 1 of all time.