FC St. Gallen: Swiss Pioneers

On July 17, Athletic Club will take on Swiss side FC St. Gallen at Kybunpark as part of our pre-season training camp in Switzerland.

While in the Alpine state, the Lions will also play pre-season friendlies against Dynamo Kyiv (Winterthur, July 20) and Borussia Dortmund (Kybunpark, July 24).

It is the first time in history Athletic have faced FC St. Gallen. The club was formed in 1879 and holds the distinction of being the oldest football team in Switzerland.

FC St. Gallen are based in the city of St. Gallen, in the German-speaking region of Switzerland. In 2008, the club moved into their new home at Kynbunpark, a 20,000-seater stadium, which replaced their previous ground, Espenmoos stadium.

Kybunpark is a place the Lions know relatively well, having played Borussia Dortmund there during the 2016-17 pre-season.

FC St. Gallen have won the Swiss top-flight on two occasions (in 1903-04 and 1999-2000) and finished seventh in the league last season.

In 2020-21, they also reached the final of the Swiss Cup -a competition which they last won in 1969, for the first time since 1998. However, St. Gallen fell at the final hurdle after losing 1-3 to FC Lucerne.

The current head coach is Peter Zeidler and their top goalscorer in the 2020-21 campaign was Kwadwo Duah, who bagged nine league goals.

The Swiss club have qualified for Europe several times throughout their history, including as recently as least season, when they were knocked out of the Europa League by AEK Athens in the qualifying rounds.

Espenmoos and now Kybunpark have always been renowned for their passionate support, with many first division clubs having struggled to pick up points on their travels to the Swiss stadium in European competitions, for example: Inter Milan (0-0, 1985-86), Chelsea (2-0, 2000-01), Club Brugge (1-1, 2001-02), Steaua Bucharest (2-1, 2001-02), Spartak Moscow (1-1, 2013-14), Swansea City (1-0, 2013-14) and Kuban Krasnodar (2-0, 2013-14).

FC St. Gallen will be the Lions’ eighth Swiss opponents, as they have already previously played against FC Zurich, FC Servette, Young Boys, FC Sion, Grasshopper Club Zurich, FC Basel and FC Biel-Bienne.

The first ever time Athletic Club faced a Swiss team was back in 1913, when they took on FC Biel-Bienne (2-2) in a New-Years’-Eve friendly at San Mamés.

Athletic’s most recent clash with a Swiss side was against FC Sion in July 2017. The Lions came out on top, winning 0-2 thanks to an own goal by Elsad Zverotic and a Raúl García strike.