FC Aarau: The unpromotable?
There was a time when FC Aarau had the nickname «the un-relegable». And they had well and truly earned it. In 1982, after almost 50 years, the Rüebliländer finally made it back into the highest league, National League A as it was then known. Before each season, they were considered a candidate for relegation, and every year they surprised everyone anew. 9 times they were forced into the relegation round, 9 times they were able to pull themselves out of the loop. Only once, in the 2001/02 season, would they have actually been relegated - had Lausanne, Sion and Lugano not all been forcibly relegated and Aarau thus saved. Simply unable to be relegated.
However, FCA was hardly satisfied with simply being «un-relegable». In 1985, they won the Cup for the first time, in 1993 they even became champions under coach Rolf Fringer - one of the biggest surprises in Swiss football history - and brought the great AC Milan to the brink of elimination in the Champions League qualifiers. After these successes, it was a big shock when the «un-relegable» FC Aarau actually had to relegate to Challenge League in 2010. After a brief comeback in the Super League, the same happened again in 2015.
In Challenge League, FC Aarau has always been among the favourites for promotion. Despite numerous players tried and tested at the highest level, such as Marco Schneuwly, Markus Neumayr or Gilles Yapi, FCA failed year after year and not infrequently by a considerable margin. Only once were they really close: in May 2019, after a 4-0 away win against Xamax in barrage, Aarau already had one foot in Super League, but lost the return match at Brügglifeld with the same result and ultimately failed in the penalty shootout. A drama. Had the un-relegatable become the un-promotable?
The President works for free
FCA did not want it to come that far - and reinvented itself without further ado. Long-time fan Philipp Bonorand, a feed producer for animals who doesn't pay himself a centime for his work, took over as president. And former Aarau player Stephan Keller, who had worked for a long time in Holland in young talents soccer, took over as coach. A demanding coach with a sense of wry humour, as he recently proved when he appeared in a diving suit for a photo shoot with the dress code «suit».
Picture: TeleM1
And above all, there is much more Aarau in FCA to be found again. For a long time, the club had tried with renowned and experienced players who had not quite made it elsewhere. Today, the club relies entirely on its own youth. As many as 9 (!) players in this season's squad are self-taught and passed through Aarau's youth department. None of the other clubs in dieci Challenge League have nearly as many. The youngsters are repaying the trust placed in them: defender Raoul Giger clears everything at the back, Silvan Schwegler pulls the strings in midfield and Kevin Spadanuda scores almost at will up front. And suddenly FCA is back at the top of the table - for the first time in almost 10 years!
Once again it shows that soccer is somehow like pizza. Having the best ingredients alone is not enough; they also have to match in order to make a tasty dish. At FC Aarau, everything is just right, and the result is not only tasty, but also: promotion-worthy.
By the way: It took longer than expected for dieci to provide Aarau with pizzas. At first, the floor of the old house at Laurenzvorstadt 131 had to be reinforced to withstand the weight of the heavy pizza oven. However, for over 8 years now, people from Aarau have been able to enjoy «italianità a casa»!
