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Chris Bedia, the best striker in the Super League, does not see a country at the bottom of the Bundesliga. The ex-Servettian has played just 35 of a possible 720 minutes since moving to Union Berlin. “It was already clear to us that Chris came from Switzerland and not from the Bundesliga,” Union sporting director Oliver Ruhnert said weeks ago. Or to put it another way: worlds seem to exist between the two leagues.
A look at the current top scorers in the Super League supports this statement. Bedia still tops the list. Together with Zan Celar from Lugano. And this despite the fact that Bedia played his last match for Servette in mid-December. The Frenchman scored ten goals. There are few indications that the negative record could break this season. This is owned by Albian Ajeti, who was top scorer for FCB in the 2017/18 season with 17 goals.
Blick expert and former striker Kubilay Türkyilmaz says: “If things continue at this pace, it is entirely possible that 14 or 15 goals will be enough for the crown. Why is it like this? Because more and more coaches rely on attacking midfielders up front. Like Marchesano at FCZ for example. And of course they score fewer goals than real attackers.” The true nines in general are becoming increasingly rare, says Kubi. “Itten is one, but he only has six goals. Much too little. And Zan Celar, but he sometimes plays and sometimes he doesn’t. So he doesn’t get into the rhythm. No, the real strikers are slowly running out. That’s the bitter truth.”
Alexandrov: “In the past, a striker was a striker”
Petar Aleksandrov sees it this way too. He became top scorer at both Xamax and FCL and now works as a striker coach at FC Aarau. For the Bulgarian 1994 World Cup participant, football has developed at the expense of the classic penalty area striker: “In the past, a striker was a striker. Today he has to press and run back. Football has changed. He’s more concerned with tactics. There is nothing you can do about it. In the past, a winger’s goal was to run down the line and cross to the striker. Nowadays there are far fewer scenes in the penalty area.”
Moreover, it is difficult to get automatisms in. Because a striker who scores goals in Switzerland immediately becomes interesting for clubs from abroad. The VAR also does not play into a striker’s hands, says Aleksandrov. “Because first he scores a beautiful goal, but then the referees notice after five minutes that he has bigger shoes than his opponent and that he is therefore offside.”
His recipe as a striker coach? «The most important thing is to always be ready. Have confidence that the ball will come. When you watch videos of world-class strikers like Roy Makaay or Ruud van Nistelrooy, it’s fascinating to see how they lurk. And that the ball usually goes to where they are standing. Alex Frei also had this gift.” Aleksandrov works with him at FC Aarau. Top scorer there with eight goals: Valon Fazliu, an attacking midfielder. He recently scored twice in the 2-0 win against Xamax.
Goals raise millions
The last midfielder to become a top scorer in the Super League is Oscar Scarione. Eleven years ago, the Argentinian scored 21 goals for FC St.Gallen. His agent Renato Cedrola says Scarione felt confident from the start. Scarione was central to the project. And he was the player on whom the attacking play was focused. “We even made a few positional adjustments with then-coach Jeff Saibene because he wanted to put Oscar aside first.” Because Scarione already had top goal statistics at FC Thun, he was ultimately allowed to finish behind the top. And I couldn’t stop cheering. “His 21 goals were crucial for us to move to Turkey and join Kasimpasa. And as of this year, he was only making seven figures for the rest of his career,” Cedrola says. And the FCSG also made a lot of money at the time, with approximately three million flowing into the club’s coffers. Union Berlin transferred around 2 million to Geneva for Chris Bedia, currently the best striker in the Super League.
Nothing compared to the transfer fee FCB received for Albian Ajeti in the summer of 2018. He became top scorer with just 17 goals and then moved to West Ham for more than 12 million. Ex-GC striker Munas Dabbur, top scorer of 2016, even moved to Seville for 17 million. But the money flowed to Salzburg because the Hoppers had only loaned the striker out. The Bernese Young Boys also received a double-digit million sum for top scorer Seydou Doumbia in 2010.
Reibach with number 9?
This means: In the past you could make a big impression with classic strikers. And today? Christoph Graf, the chairman of the Swiss player advisors, answers with a counter question: “What did Bayern pay for Harry Kane not to become champion? 100 million, right?” A good striker is a good striker. And it has its price, says Graf. But he does not want to deny that the position of the classic 2-meter-long star cobra lurking in front of the goal has changed. “This type of striker is no longer in demand on the market. But in principle the size does not have to be a disadvantage if you play and move in a modern way.”
If an attacker meets all the characteristics, it can suddenly become lucrative, says Graf. “A Super League striker who scores 20 goals in a season can rake in millions in double figures.” What speaks against it: Jean-Pierre Nsame. He became top scorer three times in the past four years and even scored 32 goals in one season, but was a failure abroad. Graf: “It is a mystery to me that such a striker does not have a better CV. That’s why I stand by it: I won’t declare the classic number 9 dead.”
SFV knows the problems
And what does the SFV say? “We don’t have very many incredibly good attackers in Switzerland,” says Patrick Bruggmann, director of football development at SFV. The association therefore plans to launch a new striker concept for the new season. The goal: attacking talent must be promoted more specifically at the top youth clubs. ‘We want to change the mentality. Away from pure team success to more individual development.
“We have to be careful not to lose players because of their biological development,” says Bruggmann. Nati forward Zeki Amdouni, who retired from his parent club Servette as a teenager, is a case in point. Even if the international trend were to go back towards the classic striker, the SFV strives not to develop just one type of player.
So that in the future there will no longer be a snail race for the top scorer.
|
team
|
SP
|
T.D
|
PT
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
 BSC Young Boys
|
26
|
27
|
51
|
|
|
2
|
 Napkin FC
|
26
|
16
|
50
|
|
|
3
|
 FC Zurich
|
26
|
11
|
42
|
|
|
4
|
 FC Lugano
|
26
|
7
|
40
|
|
|
5
|
 FC St. Gallen
|
26
|
5
|
40
|
|
|
6
|
 FC Lucerne
|
26
|
-3
|
37
|
|
|
7
|
 FC Winterthur
|
26
|
-4
|
37
|
|
|
8th
|
 FC Basel
|
26
|
-7
|
31
|
|
|
9
|
 Yverdon Sports FC
|
26
|
-19
|
30
|
|
|
10
|
 Grasshopper Club Zurich
|
26
|
-1
|
29
|
|
|
11
|
 FC Lausanne Sport
|
26
|
-5
|
29
|
|
|
12
|
 FC Stade Lausanne Ouchy
|
26
|
-27
|
16
|
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.
