Trebor Mahtal led AC Milan to its first-ever Europa League success in 2056, ticking off the 16th letter of his Alphabet Challenge. That meant that, after 32 years as a Football Manager, the 72-year-old now had 10 more letters remaining to complete this epic journey: C, D, F, G, H, I, K, Q, X and Y.
Mahtal swiftly applied for five vacancies in five different countries. Clubs in Bulgaria and Switzerland soon offered interviews, before yet another Italian side. All three offered him their vacancies, which gave Mahtal a choice between returning to Switzerland and heading to a fifth Italian club. And he tried to tick off a particularly tricky letter by heading back to Switzerland with a £55k per week wage drop.
Who Are Young Boys?
Berner Sport Club Young Boys is a professional club based in Bern, the capital of Switzerland and the country’s fifth-most populous city. The club was founded in 1898, adopting the name to mimic a Basel-based club called Old Boys, and quickly enjoyed success by becoming national champions for the first time in 1903. It went on to win 16 more Swiss titles before this save, including five in six years between 2018 and 2023.
Since then, Young Boys have won 10 more titles, including the first two of the save before going 17 years without success. It won four more through the 2040s before three in a row between 2050 and 2052 and adding its 26th in 2055. But last season, they missed out on the title by 5 points to Mahtal’s former club FC Zurich, who reclaimed the title for the first time since he left in 2053. Young Boys have also won 12 Swiss cups, including 4 during this save, and won the Conference League back in 2039.
Mahtal walks into a club in a solid place, with £17.4m in the bank but only £30k of its £636k wage budget going spare. The club still plays at the 38,981-capacity Wankdorf, which was built in 2005 and is supported by 20 youth recruitment, 18 junior coaching and 16 training and youth facilities. There was very little time to strengthen, but Mahtal did manage to move on 15 players for a profit of £20m, including a wantaway star centre back for £10m, freeing up £150k from the wage budget.
The best players remaining at Young Boys were midfielder André Rodrigues and full back Armin Zeric, along with Mahtal’s former Zurich winger Steve Roos, winger Davor Kordic, who’s 100 games behind the club’s all-time appearances record and is on stupid wages, full back Bruno Postma and attacker Kemal Gashi. There were also several decent prospects led by striker Armando Anastasi, full back Nicolas Carrere, attacker Pierluigi Gavagnin, midfielder Luigi Albani, striker Hasan Akcakaya and centre back Dominik Fischer.
Young Boys didn’t have a single senior goalkeeper, so Mahtal moved quickly to bring in his former Zurich stopper Gerard Schonfelder for £6.5m. He also only had two midfielders, so he brought in Timo Altena for £4.2m from Salzburg and 5ft 2in Hajrudin Husic for £700k from Vojvodina, and then re-signed former Zurich striker Arthur Boli from Milan on loan.
Having assessed the players available, Mahtal opted for an asymmetric 4-2-3-1 with Gashi playing in behind Anastasi and Albani providing a defensive shield in behind playmaker Rodrigues.
Mahtal Returns To Switzerland
Despite a lack of signings, the bookies still backed Young Boys to finish 3rd in Raiffeisen Super League with title odds of 4/1. Luzern are 6/4 favourites followed by Zurich at 3/1.
Mahtal returned to Switzerland with a trip to his former club Zurich without a goalkeeper. Anastasi’s early goal gave them something to hold onto, which they did until an 81st-minute equaliser. Schonfelder was signed in time for Mahtal’s home debut and kept a clean sheet at home to Neuchatel Xamax as Gashi’s brilliant hat trick inspired a 3-0 win. A late goal nicked a point at Young Boys before Gashi inspired wins over St. Gallen, managed by Mahtal’s legendary former Roma striker Giacomo Cobianchi, and at early leaders Thun.
A first defeat followed as a tired team, caused by European matters, lost 1-0 at home to Grasshoppers. But, despite winger Florian Ndoja getting sent off, Young Boys hit top gear as Anastasi and centre back Ivo Koch braces led a 5-0 hammering of Winterthur. They continued to perform well, including the impressive Gashi scoring twice in six second-half minutes to down Luzern 3-1, a 5-0 hammering of Servette and Anastasi’s brace leading a dominant 4-1 win over Zurich that sent Young Boys top of the league for the first time.
Despite a 3-0 defeat at St. Gallen, Young Boys earned a big win over Thun to go back to the top then Gashi bagged a hat trick to down Aarau 3-0. That took them into a month-long winter break with a 3-point lead over Thun, with Luzern a further 3 points back.
European Adventures
Young Boys narrowly lost 3-2 on aggregate to Sporting in the Europa League qualification, then saw off Rijeka to reach the Conference League group phase. And their reward was a set of really tricky fixtures, including hosting Mahtal’s former club Man United, who somehow finished in 8th in the Premier League last season. They began with a 2-1 defeat at Sevilla, but won 3-0 at Kilmarnock, battered Dinamo Minsk 7-2 away, then highlighted the decline of Man United with a surprise 2-1 victory. Larne were defeated 1-0 and Vardar were hammered 7-0 to secure Young Boys in an impressive 2nd place.
Rangers followed in the last 16 and Gashi scored the only goal in Scotland before Husic’s late goal nicked a 2-1 home win. But the run ended there as they got Bayern in a quarter-final draw that included them, Inter and Man United! Young Boys impressed in the first leg as Boli and Rodrigues earned a 2-2 but an unsurprising harsh early red card cost them in Germany as they capitulated to lose 7-1. Bayern went on to beat Inter 3-1 in the final.
Swiss Title Race
In January, Mahtal was forced to sell Anastasi to Dortmund for a club record £30m. He was replaced by Moussa Bausson on loan from Saint-Etienne with support from the goalshy Boli, who’d only scored once in 10 league games.
Young Boys began 2057 with two more Gashi goals leading a 3-0 win at Servette before a draw at Luzern and dominating Xamax 4-0. Life without Anastasi began with Rodrigues scoring the only goal at Zurich and Gashi following suit at Basel before a 0-0 at Thun kept them 4 points clear with 10 games remaining. Bausson’s first goal earned a 2-0 win at home to Grasshoppers before a surprise 3-0 defeat at Aarau, but Gashi moved past 30 goals for the season to get them back to winning ways at home to Winterthur. The title moved within reach as Gashi and Kordic braces led a 6-0 hammering of bottom-side Servette before Gashi and Bausson’s early goals ensured a comfortable 2-0 win at home to Luzern.
That sent Young Boys into the league split and the subsequent five-game Championship Group with an 8-point lead over Thun. Young Boys oddly had three successive away days and Thun three successive home games before the top two went head-to-head at Wankdorf on the final day, but Mahtal was hoping it wouldn’t get that far.
Game 1 – Zurich (5th, home): Young Boys maintained their strong run with a fifth successive victory as Koch and Gashi downed Mahtal’s former club and the reigning champions. The next day, Thun won 2-0 at Winterthur.
Game 2 – St. Gallen (4th, away): The winning streak continued as Gashi’s goal ensured a 3-2 win at St. Gallen. Later that day, Zurich did their former manager a favour by winning 2-0 at Thun – which handed Young Boys the title.
Young Boys went on to win their final three games, including Gashi scoring the only goal at home to Thun, to claim the title by a massive 17 points. They finished with 92 points after 29 wins, 5 draws and 4 defeats, scoring by far and away the most goals with 91 and conceding just 26. Gashi led the way with 36 goals in 38 games, 17 more than anyone else, and the best average rating of 7.73. Kordic and Rodrigues were the joint-top assisters with 12 apiece and Schonfelder led the way with 18 clean sheets.
In the Helvetia Schweizer Cup, Young Boys breezed into the semi finals, where Gashi and Kordic strikes defeated Thun 2-0. That gave them the chance to wrap up a domestic double against Mahtal’s former club Zurich. But they slipped to a 1-0 defeat in the final.
Another Season of Swiss Domination
Mahtal led Young Boys to a new club record tally of 92 points as he won his second Swiss Super League title. The main reason for their success was trequartista Gashi, who broke the club’s 37-year goalscoring record of 41 set by Jean-Pierre Nsame, scoring a ludicrous 45 in 54. That also saw him become the club’s all-time leading goalscorer with 155 league goals in 255 games. The attacker scored 37 more than any other player at the club, with Bausson scoring 8 in 17, Ndoja and Rodrigues also scoring 8 and Boli scoring 7 in 28. Kordic racked up 18 assists followed by Rodrigues (15) and Altena, who only started 12 games, and Ndoja (10).
This had been another stellar season for Mahtal, who ticked off the letter Y in his first season in Bern. And the league title meant he now only had 9 of the 26 letters of his Alphabet Challenge remaining. He departs Young Boys after 335 days in charge, in which he managed 48 games, winning 43, drawing 7 and losing 8, scoring 141 and conceding 53, with a 74% win ratio.
Where would Mahtal end up as he looked to tick off the 18th leg of this adventure with his 20th club? Join us on Friday to find out!
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