{"id":49757,"date":"2026-04-16T06:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/49757\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T06:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:37:15","slug":"facundo-alvanezzi-the-man-who-shaped-xhaka-shaqiri-and-switzerlands-golden-generation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/49757\/","title":{"rendered":"Facundo Alvanezzi: The man who shaped Xhaka, Shaqiri, and Switzerland\u2019s golden generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alongside the technological leaps of the 21st century, soccer has evolved through the implementation of new instruments and methodologies embraced by clubs across all levels of the game. Yet technology alone does not always translate into better players or better human beings.<\/p>\n

World Soccer Talk had the opportunity to sit down with Argentine youth developer Facundo Alvanezzi, who spent 11 years at Swiss club FC Basel<\/a> between 2008 and 2019. Having trained in South America and studied the methods of some of Europe\u2019s most renowned clubs, including FC Barcelona, AC Milan and Bayern Munich, Alvanezzi applied his knowledge to help produce elite talents such as Granit Xhaka, Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabian Sch\u00e4r, among others.<\/p>\n

A former professional player in Argentina who also played in Italy, Alvanezzi began his coaching career at Aldosivi before departing for Basel in 2008. Moving from scheduled training sessions with limited soccer balls, \u201ccompensated by the amount of talent,\u201d to an environment where every youth team trained on a heated pitch, had balls for every player, full kits and access to psychologists, nutritionists and other health professionals represented a dramatic shift in perspective.<\/p>\n

FC Basel and a commitment to youth development <\/p>\n

Already proficient in Italian from his playing days, Alvanezzi still had to immerse himself in the cultural and linguistic demands of his new environment, all in service of what he considers the cornerstone of his work: communication. In a single training session, he might move between Italian, French, and German while coordinating multiple groups of young players across state-of-the-art facilities designed to maximize their development.<\/p>\n

\"FCFC Basel\u2019s U-14 squad. <\/p>\n

\u201cA club like Basel worked with all 14 or 15 age groups all at the same time. The First Division had its own separate pitch. But for everything related to the youth levels from U21 down, everyone had their own respective pitch. Even the littlest ones, the 5 and 6-year-olds, had their own synthetic fields with dimensions suited for 5 or 6-year-olds. Just to give you an idea\u2014no time was wasted there. In other words, time is utilized in a way that enriches you instead of being a deficit that hinders the development of future players.\u201c<\/p>\n

Alvanezzi then put into context the remarkable achievement of a small nation punching well above its weight. \u201cYou can\u2019t forget that Switzerland has a population of between 6 and 7 million inhabitants, so the emerging talent back then was very scarce. They did an extraordinary market study so that today they have 17, 18, 19, and 20-year-olds\u2014which didn\u2019t happen before\u2014playing and qualified for the next World Cup in the US, Mexico, and Canada. So, basically, everything related to infrastructure and planning\u2026 whether you like it or not, having that entire grid set up allowed me\u2014as someone passionate about football who loves being on the pitch\u2014to work peacefully. I knew I had my designated pitch to work with the U15s, the U16s, the U17s,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The role of a youth developer and the cultivation of talent <\/p>\n

A fluent Spanish speaker, Alvanezzi describes himself as a \u201cformador de juveniles,\u201d a youth developer rather than a coach, drawing a sharp distinction between the two roles: \u201cThe developer (formador) teaches and builds; they earn very little, if anything at all. In terms of titles\u2014U14s, U15s, the Reserves\u2026 I don\u2019t care about those. The coach (entrenador) is there to train, to play, to compete, to get points, to win a domestic league, a Libertadores, a Euros, a Champions League, or a World Cup. They are two completely different things. That\u2019s why there aren\u2019t many coaches developing players, and there aren\u2019t many developers coaching elite teams.\u201c<\/p>\n

Another key principle in his approach is trusting the creative instincts of young players rather than issuing directives, recognizing that the youth phase is when information can have the most profound impact. He pairs this with a cosmopolitan perspective while never abandoning his own core beliefs.<\/p>\n

\"FacundoFacundo Alvanezzi on the touchline. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words: at no point do I impose. I don\u2019t impose knowledge, authority, or didactics\u2014nothing. I seduce. Those are two completely different things. And I try to seduce through knowledge. Because when you have knowledge, you can \u2018disarm\u2019 the player; when you explain the how, the when, the where, and the why. Of course, when I go somewhere else, I adapt, but I cannot renounce my genes.\u201c<\/p>\n

When he arrived in Switzerland, Alvanezzi found himself surrounded by cutting-edge technology, GPS tracking and gym equipment, yet he remains committed to the idea of developing players \u201cwith a ball.\u201d \u201cIn player development, I adapted to the systems, but with my own imprint. I carry the Argentine imprint everywhere. It\u2019s this: I watch a player\u2014how he walks\u2014a 5-year-old, a 10, 15, or 20-year-old. I watch him walk. I throw him a ball. I watch him make a couple of touches\u2014juggling in the air, a change of direction. And right then, I realize what that footballer might be capable of. Or not,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

The value of mistakes in youth development <\/p>\n

Elite clubs increasingly measure the success of their youth teams by silverware, mirroring the pressure placed on the first team. But for Alvanezzi, perfection is not the goal. Forcing young players into rigid systems, he argues, sends them to the first team with significant blind spots, and he views the ability to make mistakes as one of the most valuable learning tools available.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere are players I can ask to play a football of possession and position. And then there are footballers to whom I have to say, \u2018You: control the ball, don\u2019t carry it, and pass it to a teammate.\u2019 Meanwhile, for another player\u2014because I go against the establishment and the system\u2014,\u201d Alvanezzi said.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe one of the virtues I have in this vocation of developing players is that I value the error. From the error, I create the virtue of the success. In the context of teaching, I don\u2019t criticize the player; I seduce him. \u2018But what if I struggle, I lose the ball, it\u2019s hard for me, and they score on us?\u2019 And what\u2019s the problem? I don\u2019t want my trophies and medals hanging in my house. What good are they to me? If, in the end, I didn\u2019t get any player to move up to the First Division. If I didn\u2019t develop a single player for the first team,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Alvanezzi, who says he has not a single medal or trophy displayed in his home, considers the players he has helped reach the elite level to be his true honors: \u201cNow, my \u2018medals\u2019 are an average of 45 to 50 players who reached the top level. Especially at Basel. We had a coach like Thorsten Fink, who helped us a lot and used to play for Bayern Munich. He helped us bring up kids at 16 or 17 years old. I had the pleasure of training players like Yann Sommer, Granit Xhaka<\/a>, Shaqiri, Breel Embolo, Noah Okafor, Fabian Sch\u00e4r , Eray C\u00f6mert, Neftali Manzambi, Raoul Petretta, Cedric Itten\u2014an immense number of players. Those are the medals one gets to hang up.\u201c<\/p>\n

He then stressed that the developer\u2019s job demands patience and an embrace of the mistake. \u201cThey need to learn to play with the right foot, with the left foot, and have a lot of contact with the ball. When I arrived at Basel and asked for\u2014for example, the squads there are 18 players\u2014I asked for no less than one ball per player. At first, they just looked at me. \u2018Why one ball per player?\u2019 Because, what did I achieve over the years? That in an hour and a half, the players went from an average of 200 touches in a standard session\u2026 once I integrated the technical and game-based training, that multiplied to 1,400 daily touches with the ball. The more touches you have, the more you polish the errors.\u201c<\/p>\n

In an environment dominated by innovation, Alvanezzi believes the fundamentals are often left behind, and his street soccer mentality changed the culture at Basel. \u201cIn Europe, \u2018soccer practice\u2019 (11v11) doesn\u2019t exist. From Monday to Friday, it\u2019s all small-sided games. Everything. So when I got to Basel, imagine the resistance from the other coaches. They told me, \u2018No, Facundo, you\u2019re crazy. The players will get injured; we don\u2019t do that here; everything is small-sided.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I told them, \u2018The 11v11 is the symptom for Saturday or Sunday; it\u2019s how you know which player you can count on and which one you can\u2019t. You might think you can count on someone, but on a full pitch, it becomes too big for them, and they become completely disorganized. We need a parameter.\u2019 Well, I implemented it at Basel until it became their own \u2018modus operandi\u2019 that on Thursdays, we did the 11v11 practice. The teams started improving exponentially because they were finally playing football not in a 20\u00d720 or 30\u00d730 space, but in 100\u00d765\u2014which is where real football is played,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hunger\u2019: the defining trait of the players who made it <\/p>\n

Among the many stars Alvanezzi has helped develop, a common thread runs through the backstories of those who reached the highest level: adversity. Both Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka were born and raised in a disintegrating Yugoslavia amid violence before finding asylum in Switzerland<\/a>. Breel Embolo\u2018s path was similar, leaving Cameroon with his family before settling in France and eventually Switzerland.<\/p>\n

That contrast between their upbringing and those of more comfortable peers is precisely what Alvanezzi calls \u201chunger,\u201d the spark that gave them a decisive edge. \u201cFrom an early age, when you watch them train\u2014unlike the vast majority of Swiss youth developers who never experienced need\u2014these were kids of struggle. They are born, raised, and developed out of hardship. So, the only possibility they had to emerge\u2014unlike other great Swiss talents I had at Basel who didn\u2019t make it\u2014they weren\u2019t going to make it because they lacked that \u2018hunger.\u2019 That potentiality of saying, \u2018Through soccer, I am going to help my family; I am going to emerge; I am going to be somebody.\u2018\u201d<\/p>\n

Alvanezzi then reflected on the social realities that shaped Xhaka, Shaqiri and Embolo. \u201cThey lacked even the most basic conditions in an elite, first-world country. They were segregated because they weren\u2019t Swiss. They are three starters for the Swiss national team who have played in World Cups, but Breel is from Cameroon, and the other two are Kosovar. When society wasn\u2019t integrating them, but they were useful to the national team football-wise, they nationalized them.\u201c<\/p>\n

\"AlvanezziAlvanezzi with Neftali Manzambi, Breel Embolo, and Charles Pickel. <\/p>\n

He then illustrated how that hunger translates into a measurable competitive advantage. \u201cGenetically, all of that plays in their favor, 80 or 90% more than the well-off Swiss player\u2026 That \u201cplus\u201d works in your favor. While they came to training on foot or by tram, the vast majority of players of Swiss origin came every day with their fathers in a different car\u2014a Mercedes-Benz, a Porsche\u2026 That factor of having nothing missing ends up working against you. Since you have everything, what am I going to be ambitious about? Playing in a World Cup? I\u2019m not interested. Reaching the first team? If I make it, I make it, and if I don\u2019t, I still have everything,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

A memorable trip to South Africa <\/p>\n

In 2010, following the World Cup in South Africa, Alvanezzi traveled to the country for fifteen days representing the Swiss U15 national team with Basel at the Danone Nations Cup, competing against teams from Japan, Argentina, China, England, Italy and others. What left the deepest impression on him, however, was not the competition itself but the cultural awakening it triggered among his Swiss players and the youth developers around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t know what it was like for a kid not to have a cell phone, or to walk around barefoot. They couldn\u2019t understand why colored people sat at one table and white people at another because of the legacy of apartheid. All the Swiss kids traveled with the latest cell phones. They would leave half of their plates full of food. And 50 meters away, at the fence in a gated area of the complex, local kids would come to beg for food,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

\"\"FC Basel youth squad in 2010 Danone Cup. <\/p>\n

\u201cAlong with several other Latino coaches, I would gather the leftover food and give it to them. It reached the point where FIFA was going to fine me, because they said I wasn\u2019t allowed to feed the people. And I told them: \u2018Why not? It\u2019s the most important thing; they\u2019re hungry. The only one who understood it on that trip was Breel Embolo,\u201d Alvanezzi added.<\/p>\n

Talent, mentality and the cohesion of a group <\/p>\n

One of the most enduring debates in sports is whether the right mentality can outshine raw talent through sheer hard work, or whether that notion is simply wishful thinking. For Alvanezzi, the two qualities are not in competition but are complementary, with every player on a team assigned a specific purpose that allows both to coexist.<\/p>\n

Using the contrasting examples of Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki, one a physical force of nature, the other a pure embodiment of technical brilliance, he illustrates how different profiles can coexist within the same system \u201cThey are complementary and different at the same time. You can link this to the aspect of mental construction. Mentality is also something you develop. If I convince you that in three years you have to improve your heading or your left foot, and you end up doing it in a match to stop a counter-attack\u2026 that is mentality,\u201d Alvanezzi stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see Haaland playing with his back to the goal, he looks like an average player; put him facing the goal, and he\u2019s an animal. He hides his deficit in back-to-goal play\u2014and tries to do it as little as possible\u2014but he has an above-average mentality that allows him to fail ten times and try again. Cherki, on the other hand, relies entirely on his talent. He has a different mentality, but he understood that to stay at the elite level, he must not interpret that (reliance on talent) as a fragility,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

While Alvanezzi acknowledged that mental strength is partly something \u201cyou bring it with you, but you can also incorporate it,\u201d he was equally quick to point out that he has seen players with extraordinary talent but no capacity for hard work, and others with far less natural ability but the psychological resilience to make it to the top. Bridging that gap, he argues, is just as much the developer\u2019s responsibility as any technical instruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cMental construction is also developed. If I talk to you and try to seduce and convince you of your errors with respect, you will be more receptive. Today, kids are given 20 hours of leisure time outside of training, and we don\u2019t teach them how to think. But to develop players, you must be emotionally well-constituted and rationally grounded. If you aren\u2019t vocational and emotional, you cannot develop players; you should do something else.\u201c<\/p>\n

Beyond individual qualities, Alvanezzi insists that everything must be considered through the lens of the collective, where a single weak link can unravel even the most talented group: \u201cThe developer has to work with a clear idea and a common goal. The \u2018mind\u2019 of the team, 90% of the time, has to be uniform. If it isn\u2019t uniform, the group disintegrates, no matter how much talent you have.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cIf mentally you are thinking \u2018white\u2019 and I am thinking \u2018black,\u2019 and we have to play with a red ball, but neither of us wants to yield, it means we aren\u2019t complementary. Individualism and egocentrism generate a very large negative impact. We all row to reach the shore and save ourselves; it can\u2019t be that one rows right and another rows left, leaving us in the high seas until a wave drowns us,\u201d Alvanezzi concluded.<\/p>\n

Stress: the invisible enemy of athletes <\/p>\n

As in any high-performance discipline, stress management has become one of the defining challenges in modern soccer, a sport that has seen its fixture calendar grow to near-unsustainable levels. \u201cPlayers today have an enormous match load. They play 80, 90, 100 matches a year. In my era, that didn\u2019t exist. And that carries an enormous physical, mental, and psychological toll, which is one of the many reasons why footballers get injured. Everything is connected. And if the head isn\u2019t right, the body will never be right,\u201d Alvanezzi stated.<\/p>\n

\"XherdanXherdan Shaqiri of Basel (Daniela Porcelli\/Getty Images). <\/p>\n

With stress affecting muscles, tendons and bones alike, conventional metrics like GPS data and weight measurements become meaningless when the mental aspect is ignored, he argues. \u201cA player will always tell you they are at 100%. I liked, and I still like, for the player to train at 50% or 60%. If a kid trains at 100% five days a week and then tries to play at 200% on the weekend, they end up getting hurt. Sooner or later. It\u2019s a universal law.\u201c<\/p>\n

These pressures are not confined to the professional game, extending deep into the youth system as well. \u201cLet\u2019s take away the weights, take away the GPS, work more on the mental side, and talk to the footballer. When a footballer tells you they want to stay 60 minutes longer after training\u2026 \u2018No. Go home. Rest. Eat well. Take a nap. Look after yourself. Read, watch a movie. Relax. Do yoga. Meditate.\u2019 But for all of that, you have to talk, and you have to be prepared,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

Alvanezzi also addressed the lack of preventive awareness he has observed at the youth level: \u201cThat\u2019s why I like it when a player comes and tells me: \u2018This and that is happening to me.\u2019 \u2018Don\u2019t worry. You\u2019re not playing this match; you\u2019re going to train at 50%.\u2019 I\u2019d rather give you two weeks of rest than have it be six months of forced leave due to a ligament tear. Today, there is no prevention because we, the developers, aren\u2019t prepared to prevent; we are competitive, egocentric beings who want to win everything, forgetting that we don\u2019t play anymore.\u201c<\/p>\n

U.S. soccer and MLS evolution: the legacy of 1994 <\/p>\n

Through friends living and working in the United States, and despite acknowledging that his English is far from perfect, Alvanezzi has been able to witness a genuine transformation in the country\u2019s soccer culture, one he traces directly back to the 1994 World Cup, when MLS was widely seen as nothing more than a retirement league. That perception, he says, has been thoroughly dismantled.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, football in the US\u2014I\u2019m not saying it competes head-to-head with baseball, basketball, or ice hockey\u2014but it has gained a very prominent position. It\u2019s no coincidence that Lionel Messi, the most emblematic figure in world football today, is playing in MLS. Players who before, as you said, came perhaps for a final retirement to spend their last seasons in a low-caliber competition, find it\u2019s a different world now. It has grown so much that renowned players prefer to come to MLS rather than go to a country in the Middle East or Asia.\u201c<\/p>\n

While acknowledging that MLS remains a league in the midst of its evolution, Alvanezzi offered a measured timeline for when it could fully establish itself at the highest level. \u201cThe evolution in terms of the training and qualification of the coaches and developers is very good. I have excellent references. Like any expanding football in a developmental stage, I think it will take them another 5 to 10 years to consolidate. It usually takes 10 to 15 years for a major league to stabilize and reach an international competitive level. They are currently in that developmental process from every point of view,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

The influence of Latinos in U.S. soccer <\/p>\n

Once considered a secondary destination for professional development, the United States has transformed into a country that offers genuine, high-level opportunities for coaches and developers alike. That growth has been driven in part by soccer\u2019s surging popularity, the influence of the Latino community, and high-profile figures like Lionel Messi and David Beckham, who have brought the sport to new audiences across the country.<\/p>\n

\"InterLionel Messi greets David Beckham, co-owner of Inter Miami CF (Elsa\/Getty Images). <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many Latinos and Argentines working in development at important clubs and academies. It is expanding in a very interesting way. They take the culture they don\u2019t have\u2014they are very pragmatic in that sense. Whatever they lack, they acquire it. Don\u2019t ask me how, but they go after it. If they don\u2019t have a qualified scientist, they go find one in Germany, Norway, or Sweden and bring them to their country to make it evolve. They do exactly the same with soccer.\u201c<\/p>\n

For youth coaches specifically, the shift in available resources has been nothing short of transformative. \u201cThey start from the foundation: youth development. And because of their immense purchasing power as a nation, they can leverage incredible infrastructure. Being in an academy there\u2014even one not affiliated with a famous MLS club\u2014means having 4, 5, or 6 pitches to train on. They have indoor gyms for \u201cfast football\u201d when the weather is bad. Material in abundance. For a developer like me, who dealt with hardships starting out in Argentina\u2014not in terms of talent, but in terms of equipment and structure\u2014imagine what that solves.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alongside the technological leaps of the 21st century, soccer has evolved through the implementation of new instruments and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1293,20916,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-49757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-fc-basel","9":"tag-granit-xhaka","10":"tag-switzerland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116413008751090797","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49757","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=49757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}