Alexander Frei or Alex Frei (born 15 July 1979) is a Swiss professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and a former player who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He is currently the manager of

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

. He began his career at

, going on to various other clubs in Switzerland, France and Germany before returning to his home club, where he won the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

title in all four of his seasons, including doubles with the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

in 2010 and 2012. Frei is the all-time leading scorer of the Swiss national football team with 42 goals in 84 games, and also their sixth-most capped player of all time. He represented the country at two UEFA European Championships and as many World Cups.

Club career

Frei started his professional career with his hometown club of FC Basel, where he later was transferred to FC Thun, FC Luzern, and

Servette FC Servette FC is a Swiss football club based in Geneva, founded in March 1890 with rugby as its first sporting activity, and named after the Geneva district of the same name. The football section was created on 17 January 1900. They play in the S ...

, all in his native Switzerland. After a transfer to French club

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

, he finished as the highest goalscorer in

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

for the 2004–05 season with 20 goals and was named Swiss Footballer of the Year the same season. He was also named Swiss Footballer of the Year in 2004 and 2007. Frei then signed a four-year contract with Borussia Dortmund on 29 June 2006. Dortmund paid a transfer fee of approximately €5 million for him. In the 2006–07 season, Frei was the highest goal scorer for Borussia Dortmund with 16 goals in 32 matches. He recovered from a long-term injury in the 2007–08 season to score six times in his last eight appearances for Borussia Dortmund. After speculation regarding his future, he came back to action against Schalke 04 in the fourth fixture of the Bundesliga. He scored two goals, equalising in an incredible game. On 17 July 2009, he left Borussia Dortmund after 74 league matches and, after six years, returned to Switzerland to sign with FC Basel. He made his debut in a 2–1 win over FC Sion on 26 July 2009. He made an assist and also scored the last minute winner in the match at the

Stade Tourbillon The Stade de Tourbillon is a multi-purpose stadium in Sion, Switzerland. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of FC Sion. The stadium holds 16,000 people and was built in 1968 and renovated in 1989. At the ti ...

. During the 2009–10 season he scored 15 goals in 19 league games and FC Basel won the Double. During the 2010–11 season he scored 27 goals in 35 league games, becoming the Swiss League Top goalscorer. At the end of the 2011–12 season, Frei won his second Double with Basel, the League Championship title and the

. In the

2012–13 UEFA Europa League The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Amsterdam Aren ...

, Basel advanced as far as the semi-finals, there being matched against the reigning UEFA Champions League holders Chelsea, but were knocked out being beaten 2–5 on aggregate. Frei's last game in this competition was as Basel qualified for the quarter-finals in the home game against Tottenham Hotspur, whom they beat 4–1 on

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after a 4–4 aggregate draw to progress. Frei played his last professional match on 14 April 2013 in the home game at St. Jakob-Park as Basel beat Zürich 3–1. He led the team as captain for this game. He also scored his last goal, a free kick from about 25 meters in the 55th minute. He was substituted some ten minutes later to a standing ovation. At the end of the Swiss Super League season 2012–13, Frei was awarded his fourth championship medal and was awarded a Swiss Cup silver medal. Between the years from 1997 to 1998 and again from 2009 to 2013 Frei played a total of 217 games for Basel scoring a total of 148 goals. 114 of these games were in the

, 15 in the

, 38 in the European competitions ( Champions League and Europa League) and 50 were friendly games. He scored 74 goals in the domestic league, 13 in the cup, 22 in the European matches and the other 39 were scored during the test games. With the club he won four league championships and two cup titles.

International career

Frei represented

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

at Under-18s, Under-19s and Under-21s levels. He played his Swiss U-18s debut on 25 October 1995 in the 5-1 away defeat against the French Under-18s. His Under-21 debut was on 3 September 1999 in the 3-1 away win against Denmark. Frei played his debut as full international on 24 March 2001, being substituted in, during the 1–1 away draw against the

Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yugo ...

during the World Cup qualification Group 1 match. In the following match, four days later, Frei scored his first three goals for the national team in the 5–0 home win against Luxembourg. Frei played for

at Euro 2004. In a group match against England, he was caught on camera appearing to spit at

Steven Gerrard Steven George Gerrard (born 30 May 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player, who most recently managed club Aston Villa. Described by pundits and fellow professionals as one of his generation's greatest players, Ge ...

. Although no action was taken at the time, Frei was later charged and given a provisional 15-day suspension by UEFA. He scored six times in

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South Americ ...

, including a second-minute penalty in the second leg of the play-off against Turkey which his team won on away goals. At the finals in Germany, Frei was Man of the match in the 2–0 group stage win over Togo in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

, opening the scoring from

Tranquillo Barnetta Tranquillo Barnetta (; born 22 May 1985) is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He was usually deployed out wide as a left winger but could also play in the centre as an attacking midfielder, or even in a more wit ...

's 17th-minute cross. He concluded a win by the same score against South Korea in the next game to send Switzerland through as group winners. This goal was controversial as referee Horacio Elizondo overruled a judgement of offside by his assistant. On 30 May 2008, in Switzerland's final preparation match before co-hosting UEFA Euro 2008, Frei scored twice in a 3–0 friendly win over Liechtenstein. This moved him to 35 goals for the Swiss national team, surpassing the record of Kubilay Türkyilmaz. However, within the first half of the opening match of the tournament, Frei was injured while captaining the Swiss team and missed the rest of the tournament due to a torn knee ligament in his left knee after a challenge from Czech defender Zdeněk Grygera. He decided to remain with the team to show his support. He later underwent surgery. In a Euro 2012 qualifier at home against Wales, he was booed by his own fans throughout the match, even though Switzerland won the match 4–1. When he was finally substituted the fans in the home sector booed him repeatedly. On 5 April 2011, he decided to quit from the national squad after being criticised again following a 0–0 draw with Bulgaria on 26 March for the Euro 2012 qualifying match.

Sports director

After Frei ended his career, he became new sports director of FC Luzern. This was announced by both FC Basel and Luzern on 19 March 2013.

Coaching career

He was interim manager of FC Basel. In September 2020, he became head coach of FC Wil 1900. He stepped down from this position in November 2021 and in December signed on as head coach of FC Winterthur. After successfully leading Winterthur to promotion to the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

, he was signed by his former club FC Basel to be their new head coach.

Personal life

Alexander is of no relation to club and country team mate Fabian Frei. However, he is the second-cousin of

Seattle Sounders FC Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...

goalkeeper and former Swiss youth international

Stefan Frei Stefan Frei (born 20 April 1986) is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Seattle Sounders FC. Born in Switzerland, Frei moved with his family to the United States as a teenager. He has spent his entire professional career pla ...

. His younger sister Andrea plays football for the Basel ladies team. He is married to Nina and they have a daughter born in 2012.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Switzerland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Frei goal.''

Managerial

Honours

Servette *

: 2000–01 Basel *

: 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

* Swiss Cup: 2009–10, 2011–12 Individual * Credit Suisse Player of the Year: 2003 * Ligue 1 Golden Boot: 2004–05 (20 goals) * Credit Suisse Player of the Year: 2004, 2005, 2007 * Swiss Super League Golden Boot:

(27 goals), 2011–12 (24 goals) * Axpo Super League Player of the Year: 2011, 2012 * Swiss Golden Player Award: ''"Best Forward"'': 2011, 2012

References

External links

* * * * *
Alexander Frei's profile, stats & pics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frei, Alexander Swiss footballers Switzerland youth international footballers Switzerland under-21 international footballers Switzerland international footballers Servette FC players FC Basel players FC Thun players Stade Rennais F.C. players Expatriate footballers in France Borussia Dortmund players Association football forwards Footballers from Basel Expatriate footballers in Germany UEFA Euro 2004 players 2006 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2008 players Swiss Super League players Ligue 1 players Bundesliga players FC Luzern players Swiss-German people 1979 births Living people 2010 FIFA World Cup players Swiss expatriate sportspeople in France Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Swiss football managers FC Basel managers FC Wil managers Swiss Super League managers Swiss Challenge League managers