Newly promoted Thun devouring the big fish in Swiss football league title race

GENEVA – A football fairy tale is on the cards in Switzerland, where FC Thun, newly promoted from the second division, are comfortably leading the Super League and motoring towards the title.

Their extraordinary run has left the likes of Young Boys and champions Basel trailing in their wake.

Comparisons have been made with newly promoted Kaiserslautern winning the Bundesliga in 1998, underdogs Leicester City lifting the English Premier League trophy in 2016 or Mjallby, a team from a fishing village, winning the Swedish title in 2025.

According to Transfermarkt, the Thun squad has the second-lowest market value in the 12-team Swiss Super League, at €16 million (S$24 million) – way below Young Boys at €67 million.

Thun won promotion from the Challenge League last season, ending a five-year spell in the second tier.

Club president Andres Gerber said they set the “courageous” target of finishing in the top half of the 12-team Super League. But 22 matches in, Thun are nine points ahead of second-placed Lugano.

They have also scored the most goals and conceded the joint-fewest.

“What we do is not so complicated – it’s the opposite,” Gerber said, explaining that the team had “good players with a lot of confidence, and they get better from game to game”.

Thun’s 2009-10 and 2024-25 second-division titles are the biggest honours the club have won. But excitement is building at the prospect of the Swiss top-flight title coming to Thun, a German-speaking lakeside town of 45,000 people dominated by its castle.

“You can hear it and feel it everywhere. It’s fantastic,” added the 52-year-old Gerber.

The former Thun captain and Swiss international believes that a solid team ethic and long-term continuity are key to the club’s success.

“I’ve been here 23 years, we have many staff here for 15 years. That’s really important because we all know each other. We know the culture in Thun,” he said.

“In our region, we are not too loud. We are modest. We prefer to do it, not talk too much about it. It’s really a team. It’s not big money and big names.”

Manager Mauro Lustrinelli is also a Thun legend. He scored 20 goals for Thun in 2004-05, driving them to second in the Super League – hitherto their best-ever finish.

The club went on to play in the Champions League, where they finished third in their group behind Arsenal and Ajax but ahead of Sparta Prague.

The former Switzerland striker, who featured at the 2006 World Cup, took the manager’s job in 2022.

The 49-year-old has quietly forged a close-knit unit without superstars, building a team who are exceptionally efficient in its approach, blending talent, team spirit and clear tactics.

Gerber reiterated there was no point thinking about the title and wasting energy that should go into the game.

“There are still 16 games left and that’s why we stay cool,” he said.

“Nobody was thinking that after 22 matches we would be first. That was impossible... But we stay with both feet on the ground.” AFP