FC Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, Red Bull Salzburg, Borussia Mönchengladbach or FC Lorient: many of Europe’s top clubs have one thing in common: a Swiss between the posts. They stand in the spotlight and earn millions. But why is little Switzerland, of all places, the great goalkeeping nation? There is a good reason, and it has a name: Patrick Foletti, known to everyone simply as Fox. The former top Swiss goalkeeper for FC Luzern and GC, now goalkeeping coach of the Swiss national football team, created the system behind the success. With him and a few notes on a scrap of paper, Switzerland’s goalkeeping miracle began a decade ago. We meet Foletti for a conversation in Meggen LU, where he lives. The Ticino native seems deeply relaxed and intensely focused at once. That, presumably, is what makes a top goalkeeper.
MEN: Is Switzerland the best goalkeeping nation in the world?
Patrick Foletti: I find it a little arrogant to say such a thing.
But measured against Switzerland’s size?
OK — relative to our population we’re doing better than average at the moment and certainly rank among the best.
And the reason for that is you?
(Laughs) No, certainly not! There are definitely several factors. The first is Mother Nature. Without raw talent there is no good goalkeeper.
But other countries have that too.
Agreed. Our training model is the other point. Over the past ten or twelve years we’ve managed to build a Swiss Identity. We work in the same direction in every part of the country. With the same principles, the same ideas and the same structures. That has already put us two steps ahead — ahead of all the other countries still debating how goalkeeper training should be organised.
So what do you do so differently from everyone else?
For instance, we place far more weight on tactics today. In the past the focus was almost entirely on technique, or you simply fired hundreds of balls at the keeper. Training sessions are now often tied to a concrete match situation. Say, one in which a goal was conceded in a previous game. We recreate it and work out how it could have been prevented. The rest of the team joins in for exercises like that. So the goalkeeper no longer trains alone.
And the initial spark for such methods came from you.
I was already collecting ideas during my playing career. I never had the benefit of any specialised training. I was a professional, playing in the Champions League — yet I had no goalkeeping coach. So I made notes: what would I do differently as a coach? That’s how the concept came about. And many other people have helped to implement and develop it further.
Why didn’t that exist back then? Professional football is a huge global affair, full of top stars. And the goalkeeper was simply forgotten?
Absolutely!
But he’s an important man on the pitch.
Of course. But people only notice when the keeper has made a blunder. Then everything centres on him. Things have improved somewhat since. Some clubs have understood how important the goalkeeper is. You can see it in the transfer fees. Five years ago nobody would have put that kind of money on the table for a keeper. But now comes the next challenge: everyone wants a Ferrari, and pays for one too. Yet when the Ferrari needs servicing, they send it to a moped garage. Good goalkeeping coaches ought to be well paid one day as well.
You’ve coached all of Switzerland’s top keepers yourself. Did you also discover them, or were they simply there?
Both. I got Yann Sommer from GC. He was already a great talent; we simply developed him further. Beyond that, we scout very early. I already know where the 15- and 16-year-olds stand. And among them there are certainly one or two top talents.
How long does it take, with talent, to become a very good goalkeeper?
Longer than for an outfield player. They can join the first team at 19. With goalkeepers there’s a delay of two to three years.
Why?
Because the goalkeeper carries an entirely different level of responsibility.
Is he under more pressure than a striker?
Absolutely! He carries the greatest pressure of all eleven players on the pitch. You walk a very fine line between hero and fool. Make one mistake and it’s a goal. A striker can go six weeks without scoring, then nets once and he’s the star.
So the keeper can only ever get it wrong?
In the public’s perception, perhaps. But that’s exactly why you become a goalkeeper. You want that responsibility. You relish it. Only the very best professionals can live comfortably with this status between hero and fool. And the fool is what you become, time and again.
Which player impressed you most?
Those at the very top today, the ones in the national team, impressed me from the start. Each had his own quirks and his own approach. What did Yann Sommer do differently from so many other keepers, for example? He was one of the first to realise, at a very young age, that there was still great potential in the mental side, for instance. He began early on to work on his personality with a mental coach. Then further building blocks were added — nutrition, body care, athletic conditioning and so on. In the end he fitted all these pieces of the puzzle together.
Did he do all that privately? And pay for it himself?
Yes. Let’s be clear: the lads in football earn rather well. And I like telling Yann’s story. Then the young ones ask: so who pays for that? And I say: you do. It’s an investment in yourself.
That sounds very complicated. Imagine I’m a player with several coaches in different areas, and each one says something different.
Yes, that’s a danger. But compared with other sports, football is still very traditional. In ice hockey or basketball they’ve been working this way for years.
How do you drive the development forward?
I try to talk to everyone. I knock on every door, but not all of them open.
You visit the clubs — Bayern München, for instance. Can you simply walk in? Or how should I picture it?
What matters is entering into an exchange with the clubs and communicating with them. That’s what I did with Bayern when Yann moved to Munich. There are many clubs I now work with regularly — Dortmund, Gladbach and others. By now I have a good network of relationships. That is very important. But it takes a great deal of time to build something like that.
And what do you do at the clubs?
I observe and talk, drop in on training sessions now and then, and can hold conversations with the coaches and other people. An important part, of course, is also spending time with the goalkeeper. Talking. Understanding.
Depending on the club, though, that can get pretty fierce. Take Bayern München and Yann Sommer.
In the top leagues of Europe and the world, public pressure is constant. It comes with the territory, and a top player — and a top goalkeeper — has to learn to handle it these days. After a failure a culprit is needed, and then everyone takes aim at him. The tabloids want it that way, and social media multiplies it. It’s part of the game.
So the attacks on Yann didn’t surprise you?
Not surprised, because there you simply stand under especially close public scrutiny. What was regrettable, rather, was who felt compelled to weigh in, and how little expertise went into the judgements. But as I said: you have to be able to cope with attacks and pressure.
In a year’s time the European Football Championship takes place in Germany. Does Switzerland have a chance of being right at the front?
We have a vision, an ambition, and that’s how it should be. In the long term we want to belong among the best. Still, we mustn’t forget where we come from and who we are. If everything is perfect — no injuries, no other problems — we’re capable of a real coup and can go a long way. But for that, absolutely everything has to run perfectly across an entire tournament.
And who will be European champions?
Perhaps Spain, France — it’s always the usual suspects. I wouldn’t forget Italy either. They’ve recovered from the shock of recent years.
And not Germany?
At this point they’re not favourites. Seen from a distance, they have too many building sites at the moment. But in a year’s time it may look different. And again: if everything clicks and is perfect, perhaps Switzerland too! Why not?
This article appeared in MEN issue 1/23 (June 2023).
