Test match with FC Aarau: first free return after a brutal FCB performance

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It has been eleven months since Alex Frei (44) had to leave his coaching position at FC Basel. On Wednesday there will be the first major reunion on the occasion of the test match between FCB and Aarau. It would have been entirely possible that Frei would still be on Basel’s coaching bench instead of Aarau’s coaching bench.

According to information from Blick, FCB boss David Degen (40) wants to keep Frei in February 2023 despite the sporting decline. But because Degen is voted out by his colleagues on the board, Frei has to leave anyway. “It was definitely one of the hardest conversations of my life. I really like Alex, and that hurt a lot,” Degen says later.

Bird falls free in the back

For Alex Frei, the dismissal from ‘his’ FC Basel is probably the biggest defeat of his career – both personally and sportingly. Human, because Heiko Vogel (48), a close confidant, stabs him in the back. Frei campaigned to hire Vogel as sports director. Just a month after taking office, Vogel fired him and became a coach himself.

Frei and Vogel had been close friends for years and spoke on the phone several times a month. Being betrayed like this affected Frei immensely. Vogel congratulates him on his signing with FC Aarau. The two have not seen each other since their release.

Problems with leaders

On a sporting level, Frei is fired because he is convinced that he can still turn things around. However, the numbers contradict him. Under Nati’s record scorer, FCB experienced the weakest first half of the Super League season in twenty years. “It was a consequence of the results, but also of developments at other levels,” David Degen explains the separation.

This includes Frei’s dealings with leading players. Shortly after taking office, he shaved captain Fabian Frei to bring him back as a regular in early 2023. For this, veteran Taulant Xhaka has to go to the bench. This back and forth caused Frei to lose a lot of credit within the team.

The end is also looming in Aarau

A year after leaving FCB, Frei is also having a hard time in his new position. FC Aarau has a terrible preliminary round, the worst in seven years. Relegation is a threat in the second half of the season. In Brügglifeld there are doubts about Frei, but the desire to make it with him in the long term prevails. They also had this wish a year ago in Basel, but in the end Frei had to leave.

Source : Blick