{"id":119866,"date":"2026-08-24T17:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T17:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/119866\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T17:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T17:06:11","slug":"swiss-champion-thun-sells-two-more-players-from-surprise-title-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/119866\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss champion Thun sells two more players from surprise title team"},"content":{"rendered":"

THUN, Switzerland (AP) \u2014 Swiss champion Thun<\/a> sold two more players Monday from its surprise title-winning team<\/a> in a tough start to the season that included a quick exit from the Champions League.<\/p>\n

Thun said<\/a> defender Michael Heule joined Heidenheim in Germany and midfielder Valmir Matoshi went to Sturm Graz, the Austrian club that is in the Europa league this season.<\/p>\n

Thun reportedly will receive 3.75 million euros ($4.4 million) in combined transfer fees for the pair, who each played more than 30 league games last season as the newly promoted team stunningly eased to its first Swiss title.<\/p>\n

In the first home game of its title defense, Thun lost 6-0 to Young Boys and it was 7-0 to Lech Poznan last week in the first leg of a Europa League qualifying playoff. If Thun is eliminated after the return game Thursday it will play in the third-tier Conference League starting Oct. 15.<\/p>\n

Thun began its season in Champions League qualifying rounds in July but was eliminated by Dinamo Zagreb. Thun held a two-goal lead deep into the second leg before defender Marco B\u00fcrki was sent off.<\/p>\n

Success last season drew attention from richer rivals and Thun coach Mauro Lustrinelli went to Union Berlin<\/a>, top prospect Ethan Meichtry joined Genoa<\/a>, then leading scorers Elmin Rastoder and Christopher Ibayi left for, respectively, Panathinaikos and Moroccan club MAS.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full soccer coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THUN, Switzerland (AP) \u2014 Swiss champion Thun sold two more players Monday from its surprise title-winning team in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[58481,33026,58480,16496,58479,2019,307,17],"class_list":["post-119866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-christopher-ibayi","tag-ethan-meichtry","tag-marco-brki","tag-mauro-lustrinelli","tag-michael-heule","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-switzerland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117151582312233348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}