After overseeing a massive firesale of around 40 players and signing zero replacements in his first six months in Switzerland, Trebor Mahtal led his young FC Zürich side to an unexpected second place in Raiffeisen Super League. He now faced the dilemma of whether to continue putting faith in homegrown youth or bolster the squad with additions.
Mahtal’s ruthless transfer business saw the club make a £36m profit in the last 12 months, which sent them into the 2052/53 season with £40m in the bank and a transfer budget of £22m. He raised further funds by selling eight more players for £8m. And the squad age was reduced further as 35-year-old captain and club record appearances holder Vincenzo Negro, who’d played 592 league games since 2031, retired at the end of the season.
Mahtal addressed their lack of goals with Paraguayan striker Alan Ayala, who scored on his Paraguay debut days after signing for £750k from Nacional. But his major priority was to finally get natural full backs and he brought in new Norway international Kjell Arve Hegrenes for up to £4.5m from Viking and Matías Spinelli for £350k from Gimnasia. He also promoted rapidly improving 17-year-old striker Arthur Boli before signing a potential gamechanging signing of 18-year-old wonderkid striker Baybora Aldanmaz for a club record £9.5m from Galatasaray, surpassing the £4.6m paid for a midfielder in 2042.
Mahtal initially stuck with the 4-3-3 he’d implemented in the second half of last season, with Aleksandar Basic moving to the left to allow Ayala to play centrally. Igor Basic and Nemanja Mitic compete for the centre midfield role with exciting midfielder Erhan Corovic playing as a regista alongside Regis Galli, Carlos Fitas or Shaban Curri. However, the Baybora signing led to Mahtal considering a 4-2-4 with Ayala playing as a deep-lying forward, but he could also use the Turk on the right of the 4-3-3.
Second Season In Switzerland
The bookies boosted Zürich’s chances this season, predicting them to finish 5th with title odds of 33/1 alongside Grasshoppers and Thun. Young Boys and Luzern are 5/4 favourites ahead of Basel (15/1).
The season started well as Corovic laid on goals for attacker Marko Mirvic and Galli before Ayala created goals for winger Steve Roos and centre back Fynn Doebel before Hegrenes’ first goal wrapped up a 3-1 win at Basel. But a busy start to the season, thanks to European exploits below, saw Zürich to really get going and draw five of their opening nine games before a 1-0 defeat at home to Basel left them in 6th.
But Zürich finally got going as Baybora finally scored his first goal on his eighth appearance as braces by him and Ayala inspired a 5-0 domination of Bellinzona. They backed that up with Mitic and A Basic earning a 2-1 win at early leaders Thun, taking them 8 points off the top after 12 games. The strong form continued as Mahtal eased in the 4-2-4, which saw Baybora hit form with an incredible four consecutive braces in wins at Servette, Neuchâtel Xamax and Winterthur then a 4-0 thrashing of Young Boys. And a 3-0 win at Grasshoppers saw them move just 1 point behind leaders Thun heading into the winter break.
Unlikely Champions League Shot
Zürich’s league finish took them into the Champions League second qualifying round. Ayala’s first goal led a 2-1 win at Brann before Corovic scored twice in an easy 4-0 home victory. That set up a much tougher task against Vitória Guimaraes. But a superb first leg performance saw Mirvic’s penalty and Boli’s first senior goal nick a 2-1 win in Portugal and a boring 0-0 was enough to unexpectedly qualify. Now the run was likely to end as they took on Bayer Leverkusen in the playoff. But they performed superbly again as Corovic put Ayala in for an equaliser just before halftime and hit a late 20-yarder to give his side a chance in the home leg. And they raised their level massively to pull off a 5-1 home victory led by a Boli hat trick off the bench! So FC Zürich qualified for the Champions League main group.
The league phase began with a trip to Romania to face Farul Constanta and a heavily rotated side did well to earn a 0-0. The first 11 got a week off ahead of their second game, which was another away day at Hibs, and the rest paid off as Ayala scored the only goal in Scotland. Next up, their first home game saw Mahtal’s former club Juventus make the trip to Switzerland, and the Italians nicked a 1-0 win with a penalty. They got battered 5-0 at Arsenal but Mahtal switched to the 4-2-4 as they entertained Dinamo Zagreb, which paid off as Roos scored twice in a dominant 4-0. They held Ajax to a 1-1 then lost 2-0 at Stuttgart to drop out of the playoff places. And a 2-1 defeat at home to Torino brought the European adventure to an end, allowing Mahtal to focus on domestic matters.
Zürich made better progress in the domestic cup, breezing through the first three rounds before Baybora’s double earned a 4-0 quarter-final win over Wil. And Doebel, Galli and Ayala goals defeated Xamax 3-1 to reach the Helvetia Schweizer Final.
Swiss Title Race Heats Up
Leaders Thun lost their manager over their winter break. Selim Telib was poached by LaLiga strugglers Athletic Bilbao and replaced by the Aarau manager, who was in turn replaced by Lorenzo Lucca, now 52, which made 68-year-old Mahtal feel very old. Annoyingly, they lost winger Roos to Brentford for his £3.4m release fee but replaced him with wonderkid Giacomo d’Anna on loan from Torino.
Zürich began 2053 in scintillating fashion with Baybora bagging a brilliant hat trick to down Winterthur 4-2. Amusingly, the new Thun manager lost his first match 4-0 at Aarau, which sent Zürich top for the first time in Mahtal’s reign. He swiftly went head-to-head with Lucca and came out second-best as a rotated side lost 3-1, but Baybora’s goal nicked a 1-0 at Basel before a huge clash with 2nd-place Thun. Batbora’s half-volley put them in front early before centre back Fabien Pfister headed in a corner and Ayala’s powerful finish and late penalty killed it off.
D’Anna scored his first goal a week later, either side of Ayala and Baybora earning a 3-0 win over bottom-side Servette. But a 2-0 defeat at Luzern saw Young Boys draw level in what looked increasingly like a two-horse race for the title. Baybora hit another hat trick to pass 20 league goals in a 5-1 thrashing of Bellinzona and a 0-0 at Young Boys in late March kept Zürich 4 points clear at the top. D’Anna’s superb start continued as he laid on two goals in a 3-0 win over Grasshoppers while Young Boys drew at Basel. And Zürich took a 6-point lead over Young Boys into the five-match Championship Group.
Game 1 – Aarau (6th, away): Zürich’s quest for their first Swiss title in 10 years began by taking on Lucca again. And Mahtal got revenge as an early Ayala goal was followed by Hegrenes and D’Anna securing a 3-0 victory. Young Boys lost 1-0 at home to Lausanne courtesy of a 93rd-minute penalty to take Zürich 9 points clear.
Game 2 – Luzern (3rd, away): That gave Zürich their first chance to win the title, but they conceded Luzern’s first shot from a throw-in and offered nothing, other than Ayala missing a penalty, in a 2-0 defeat. Young Boys won to reduce the gap to 6 points with three games remaining.
Game 3 – Young Boys (2nd, home): A point at home to the reigning champions would be enough to take their title off them. This time Zürich started better, as superb play by Baybora saw him run down the right and dig out a cross that found Ayala flying high at the back post to head the opener. They didn’t kick on from there and conceded Young Boys’ first shot after halftime, but the front two combined again as Ayala split the defence for Baybora to slot home.
FC Zürich won their 16th Raiffeisen Super League and lifted their first title for 10 years!
A young team beat Lausanne 1-0 before Corovic inspired an easy 3-0 win at Thun on the final day. That saw Zürich win the title by 12 points, finishing on 85 points after 26 wins, 7 draws and 5 defeats, scoring 81 and conceding only 28. Baybora led the league with 26 goals in 33 games and his 7.45 average rating was second only to D’Anna’s 7.53 in 13 games. While Gérard Schonfelder kept a league-high 18 clean sheets.
Mahtal bowed out of Zürich with the Helvetia Schweizer Cup Final against Basel. And a solid defensive performance, coupled with Spinelli crossing for Ayala to head the only goal after an hour, ensured Zürich wrapped up a domestic double.
A Superb Season In Switzerland
The time in Zürich was right up there with Mahtal’s favourite spells in his career. His exciting young team had been competitive with some of Europe’s best and, after a sticky start in the league, took complete control in the second half of the season. The in-demand Baybora, who’s wanted by 19 clubs, was undoubtedly the star man with 29 goals in 45 games. Ayala also impressed with 23 goals and 10 assists, Basic scored 10 with 11 assists and Corovic led the way with 13 assists and 7 goals. But D’Anna was a real gamechanger with 5 goals, 7 assists and a 7.44 average rating in 16 games.
An indicator of the quality of players coming through Zürich’s academy was their centre back pairing of Fynn Doebel and Pfister making their Switzerland debuts in October. While A Basic scored a hat trick on his second Bosnia cap. But Mahtal couldn’t hang around to see just how far these promising talents could go. As, having ticked off the 14th leg of his Alphabet Challenge, it was time to go in search of his 17th club. He departed the club after 111 games, of which he won 68, drew 22 and lost 23, scoring 199 and conceding 108.
Where in the world would Mahtal end up next? Join us on Friday to find out!
Football Manager Addict 
Leave a comment