Germano Vailati (born 30 August 1980) is a Swiss former professional

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goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Club career

Vailati was born in

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

. He started his professional career in the Canton Ticino, and played for a number of different teams, before he transferred to the prestigious club

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

in the summer of 2004. In the 2006–07 season Sion were promoted to the Super League. In the 2006–07 and 2007–08 seasons he played for in their first time in UEFA Cup. He was on 22 November 2008 on trial by

FC Metz Football Club de Metz, commonly referred to as FC Metz or simply Metz (), is a French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 2, the second division in the French football league sys ...

and was signed on a six-month loan on 27 November 2008. On 14 January 2010,

FC St. Gallen Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the Swiss Super League. History Founde ...

signed the Swiss goalkeeper from FC Sion until June 2012. On 20 June 2012, it was announced that Vailati had transferred to FC Basel on a free transfer. He joined Basel's first team during their 2012–13 season under head coach

Heiko Vogel Heiko Vogel (born 21 November 1975) is a German football manager who is the current sporting director and interim coach of FC Basel. Vogel grew up in Wachenheim and played football for his local clubs TuS Wachenheim and FC 08 Hassloch. Later he ...

. After appearing in two test matches, Vailati played his team debut on 24 July 2012 in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League Second qualifying round 3–0 home win against

Flora Tallinn FC Flora, commonly known as Flora Tallinn, or simply as Flora, is a professional Football team, football club based in Tallinn, Estonia, that competes in the Meistriliiga, the top flight of Estonian football league system, Estonian football. The ...

. He played in three games in the Swiss Cup, once in the U21 team and was the first team's number two goalie, and remained the number two after

Murat Yakin Murat Yakin ( tr, Yakın; born 15 September 1974) is a Swiss football coach and former player. He is the manager of the Switzerland national football team. Playing career Yakin spent the longest spell of his career playing for his hometown c ...

became new the head coach. At the end of the Swiss Super League season 2012–13 he won the Championship title with the team. In the 2012–13 Swiss Cup Basel reached the final, but were runners up behind Grasshopper Club, being defeated 4–3 on penalties, following a 1–1 draw after extra time. Basel had started in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League in the qualifying rounds. But were knocked out of the competition by

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in the play-off round. They then continued in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage. Ending the group in second position, Basel continued in the knockout phase and advanced as far as the

semi-finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

, there being matched against the reigning

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

holders

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. Chelsea won both games advancing 5–2 on aggregate, eventually winning the competition. Vailati played his domestic league debut with the team in the home game in the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

on 23 November 2013 as Basel won 4–1 against

Thun , neighboring_municipalities= Amsoldingen, Heiligenschwendi, Heimberg, Hilterfingen, Homberg, Schwendibach, Spiez, Steffisburg, Thierachern, Uetendorf, Zwieselberg , twintown = , website = www.thun.ch Thun (french: Thoune) ...

. At the end of the 2013–14 Super League season Vailati won his second league championship with Basel. The team also reached the final of the 2013–14 Swiss Cup, but were beaten 2–0 by

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

after extra time. Vailati played in four of the six cup games. Basel joined the 2013–14 Champions League in the qualifying rounds and they advanced to the group stage. Finishing in third place in their group, Basel qualified for Europa League knockout phase and here they advanced as far as the quarter-finals. But eventually they were beaten by

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5-3 on aggregate, after extra time. For Basel's 2014–15 season

Paulo Sousa Paulo Manuel Carvalho de Sousa, CavIH (; born 30 August 1970) is a Portuguese football manager and former professional player who played as a defensive midfielder. Starting his career at Benfica, he also represented Sporting CP in his countr ...

was appointed as new head coach and it was a very successful season for the team. In the

2014–15 Swiss Cup The 2014–15 Swiss Cup was the 90th season of Switzerland's annual football cup competition. The competition started on 23 August 2014 with the first games of Round 1 and ended on 7 June 2015 with the Final, won by Sion. As winners of the compe ...

Basel reached the final, but for the third consecutive season they finished the competition as runners-up, losing 0–3 against

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Pl ...

. Vailati played in all six cup games including the final. At the end of the 2014–15 league season season Vailati won the championship with Basel for the third time. On 28 January 2015 FCB extended their contract with Vailati for a further year. Under trainer

Urs Fischer Urs Fischer (born 2 May 1973) is a Swiss-born contemporary visual artist living in New York City. Fischer’s practice includes sculpture, installation and photography. Education and early career Born to two doctors as the second of two children ...

Vailati again 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 ...

championship at the end of the 2015–16 Super League season. At the end of the 2016–17 Super League season Vailati won the championship for the fifth consecutive time. For the club this was the eighth title in a row and their 20th championship title in total. They also won the 2016–17 Swiss Cup, defeating

3–0 in the final, which meant they had won the double. On 23 May 2017 Vailati extended his contract for a further year. At the end of the 2016–17 Super League season Vailaiti retired from active football. Before of the last home match of the season, FCB said good bye and thank you to several players including long time goalkeeper Germano Vailati. During his active football time with Basel's first team Vailati played a total of 73 games for Basel. 14 of these games were in the

, 19 in 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 ...

, four in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 36 were friendly games. Vailati stayed with the club and became goalkeeper coach for their youth teams, first U-16 team and in the meantime has advanced to the U-18 team.

International career

Vailati was born in Switzerland and is of Italian descent. He was called up for the Swiss national team in November 2007, as the fourth goalkeeper for the

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of Europea ...

campaign. However, he still has no caps.

Honours

Sion *

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the winners of the league are promoted to the Super League, while the ...

Promoted: 2005–06 *

: 2005–06 Basel *

: 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17 *

: 2016–17 * Uhren Cup: 2013

References

External links

Profile at FC Basel

Profile on the Swiss Football League homepage
*
football.ch profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vailati, Germano 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Lugano Footballers from Ticino Swiss men's footballers Swiss people of Italian descent Swiss expatriate men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players FC Lugano players FC Locarno players FC Chiasso players AC Bellinzona players FC Sion players FC Metz players FC Basel players Ligue 2 players Expatriate men's footballers in France