Before the European League start
© Imago
Trainer Julian Schuster and SC Freiburg meet Xherdan Shaqiri from the neighboring club FC Basel at the Europa League start on Wednesday (9 p.m./Nitro and RTL+) with the greatest respect. The former professional of FC Bayern is an “absolute key figure” and a “certain free spirit”, said Schuster on Tuesday. The 125-time Swiss international is “the difference at Basel,” said Freiburg’s midfielder Maximilian Eggestein.
Shaqiri had returned to his training club from Chicago Fire in the summer of 2024. Last season, the 33-year-old won the championship and the national trophy with the FCB and has been the top scorer of the team since then: in 49 competitive games, he has 27 goals and 26 goals-more than one scorer per use.
A few years ago After his time at Liverpool FC, where he mostly came from the bank as a Joker, he switched to Olympique Lyon in 2021 and only half a year later to Chicago Fire to Major League Soccer. His market value has dropped to 4 million within three years since the end of 2019, when he had reached its maximum of 25 million euros.
But instead of kicking towards the football pension in North America, Shaqiri decided to return to his youth club, who had previously won a championship title for seven years-and led him back up. “I didn’t sign for one, but for three years. And what I said when I return to the fans that I wanted to bring the trophies back to Basel, I meant seriously. But of course it was almost a fairy tale in the end,” he told the “kicker” on Tuesday.
SC Freiburg before the European League start: Schuster celebrates international debut
Schuster celebrates its European Cup premiere as head coach against Basel. This is one of the reasons why the game is “something very special for him,” said the 40-year-old. With a view to the entire club, he sees the upcoming evenings in international competition as a “reward for what we have developed,” said Schuster. The sports club became fifth in the past Bundesliga season and narrowly missed the Champions League.
The duel with the Swiss double winner Basel is an international derby. You need less than an hour from city to city by car. The guests were said to have more than 30,000 card inquiries for the game in Breisgau. In fact, the club accidentally sold 256 tickets – and then had to disappoint the number of fans.