National football team gets new captain
Gökhan Inler is to captain the Swiss national football team in its June 4 match against England, national coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has revealed.
Inler replaces Alex Frei, who announced his retirement from the international game at the end of March.
The decision does not come as a surprise, since Inler had already been Frei’s deputy.
“Gökhan is in top form, is handling the ball well and is a strong runner,” Hitzfeld told Saturday’s Blick newspaper.
“It’s an honour for me and it makes me proud to lead this national team,” Inler told the paper.
“I shall do my best to ensure that we have a hungry team, and will try to be a bridge between coach and team.”
Inler, who is 26, currently plays for the Italian team Udinese, where he is a midfielder.
He made his first appearance for Switzerland in a friendly against Venezuela in 2006. In all he has made 47 international appearances, and scored four goals.
He captained the team during its shock defeat of Spain in the 2010 World Cup – the only game Switzerland won and the only game Spain (the eventual champions) lost.
More
In Switzerland, New Year brings ‘burka ban’ and pension hikes
More
Aussie adoptee gains Swiss citizenship at 54 thanks to old envelope
More
Thousands of emigrants’ descendants in Argentina demand Swiss citizenship
More
Switzerland’s most renowned trans person no longer wants to be a woman
More
Solothurn, the Swiss city that goes up to 11
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.