Loeffel’s greed for a World Cup medal and a title

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Romain Loeffel has been with the national team since the first preparation camp. That means two things: his playoffs were short and he’s barely seen his loved ones for the past six weeks. The defender was eliminated with SCB in the quarterfinals against Biel (2:4) at the end of March. After that, he started fighting for a place in the Swiss World Cup team.

Loeffel is a veteran. For ten years he has been one of the top defenders with a lot of ice time and responsibility at his clubs in Bern, Lugano and Servette. His shot is feared, his sense of attack sharpened. “Patrick Fischer knows my strengths,” said Loeffel, “but I’m not the only defender she has. I have to fight for the national team every year.”

Five coaches in five years

In 2022, two and a half months after playing the Olympic tournament in Beijing, he did not make the World Cup team. And found it hard to digest this non-selection. He can only speculate about the reasons for this. His wife Laura was pregnant at the time and about to move to Bern, which may have affected his performance during the camp weeks. This year’s preparation was therefore important for him. “Now I am very proud and very happy that I can play this World Cup.”

Especially since his first of four seasons at SCB wasn’t too brilliant. After three years of bullying, reaching the quarter-finals of the play-offs could be seen as an improvement, but the expectations in Bern are different, and Loeffel knows that too. Hailing from Lugano, a change of coach – from Johan Lundskog to Toni Söderholm – does not put him off the track. “In the past five years I have had five different coaches. Sometimes you understand it as a player, sometimes you don’t.” National coach Fischer is his constant.

Son Noé misses his father

From afar, the 32-year-old only marginally follows the rumors about his future coach in the federal capital. His focus is on the national team. And his medal dream. Until now, the timing of Loeffel’s World Cup has been so unfavorable that since 2015 he has always been in the team in odd-numbered years and was therefore unable to win silver in Copenhagen (Dä) in 2018. And in the National League he is still without a championship title. “I finally want to win a title or a World Cup medal and crown my career,” says Romand.

For this dream, Loeffel currently has no time for the family. “It’s not always easy being a father.” For the past six weeks, the father of two has only been with his family for a day or two a week. With his wife Laura (32), who supports him one hundred percent, he has two sons, Noé (3) and Axel (10 months). They see each other every day through Facetime. “If Noé tells me how much he misses me, it’s hard.” He also talks about it with the other dads on the team.

Now the national team is his family, whose cohesion and special team spirit are repeatedly emphasized by the players. With her, Loeffel is now aiming for a World Cup victory. So far, the Swiss have three mandatory victories against Slovenia, Norway and Kazakhstan, “you have to win those first.” It drew 4-2 against the Slovaks and now 3-2 against Canada. “We know that we can also win against stronger opponents,” says Loeffel, “that shouldn’t sound arrogant, but confident.”

Source : Blick

Emma

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.