Luca Zuffi (born 27 March 1990) is a Swiss

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

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 ...

Club career

Winterthur

Luca Zuffi is the son of

Dario Zuffi Dario Zuffi (born 7 December 1964) is a Swiss football coach and former international player. He is currently employed as assistant coach for FC Winterthur. Career Playing career Zuffi played his youth football with the local Winterthur team ...

. Born in

Winterthur , neighboring_municipalities = Brütten, Dinhard, Elsau, Hettlingen, Illnau-Effretikon, Kyburg, Lindau, Neftenbach, Oberembrach, Pfungen, Rickenbach, Schlatt, Seuzach, Wiesendangen, Zell , twintowns = Hall in Tirol (Austria), La ...

, he started playing football at FC Oberwil, as his father was playing for

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

at that time. In the summer of 1998 Dario Zuffi transferred back to his home club and the family moved home to Winterthur. Therefore, Luca continued his youth football with

FC Winterthur FC Winterthur is a Swiss football club based in Winterthur, Canton of Zürich. They play in the Swiss Super League, the first tier of Swiss football, and appeared regularly in the Nationalliga A during the 20th century. Their home is the Stad ...

. During the 2006–07 Challenge League season he played his debut in their first team. In the following

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

became a regular player, scoring four goals in 18 appearances.

Thun

At the beginning of the 2012–13 Super League season Winterthur loaned Zuffi out to

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

. Because he played in 26 of their 36 league games and because they qualified to play in the

2013–14 UEFA Europa League The 2013–14 UEFA Europa League was the 43rd season of Europe's secondary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the fifth season under its current title. The 2014 UEFA Europa League Final was played between Sevil ...

Thun took the option and transferred Zuffi definitively to the club. Thun advanced to the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concent ...

in which Zuffi played in all six games.

Basel

Before the start of the 2014–15 Super League season

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 ...

announced that they had completed Zuffi's transfer to the club on a three-year contract. He made his first team league debut on 19 July 2014 in the 2–1 away win against

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the dis ...

. He scored his first goal for his new club on 9 August 2014 during the 4–1 home win against

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 ...

. The season 2014–15, with

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 ...

as manager, was a very successful one for Basel. The championship was won for the sixth time in a row that season and 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 ...

they reached the final. But for the third season in a row, they finished as runners-up, losing 0–3 to

in the final. Basel entered the Champions League in the

and reached the

knockout phase 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 ...

as on 9 December 2014 they managed a 1–1 draw at

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...

against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. But then Basel then lost to Porto in the

Round of 16 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 ...

. Basel played a total of 65 matches (36 Swiss League fixtures, 6 Swiss Cup, 8 Champions League and 15 test matches). The season 2014–15 was also a very successful one for Zuffi. Under trainer

he totaled 52 appearances, 29 League, 3 Cup, 7 Champions League, as well 13 in test games. He scored 7 goals in these matches. In the season 2015–16 Basel signed a new manager

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 ...

. Zuffi had already played with Fischer as manager in Thun. With Fischer as manager Zuffi played regularly in the starting eleven. In the

2015–16 UEFA Europa League knockout phase The 2015–16 UEFA Europa League knockout phase began on 16 February and concluded on 18 May 2016 with the final at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, to decide the champions of the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League. A total of 32 teams competed in t ...

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 25 February 2016 Zuffi scored both goals as Basel won 2–1 against

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

to quality for the next round. Zuffi 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 for the second time and at the end of the 2016–17 Super League season for the third time. For the club this was the eighth title in a row and their 20th championship title in total. They also won 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 ...

for the twelfth time, which meant they had won the double for the sixth time in the club's history. Under trainer

Marcel Koller Marcel Martin Koller (born 11 November 1960) is a Swiss professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Al Ahly in the Egyptian Premier League. Playing career Born in Zürich, Koller played his entire career ...

Basel won the Swiss Cup in the 2018–19 season. In the first round Basel beat FC Montlingen 3–0, in the second round Echallens Région 7–2 and in the round of 16

1–0. In the quarter finals

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 Plac ...

were defeated 4–2 after extra time and in the semi finals

were defeated 3–1. All these games were played away from home. The final was held on the 19 May 2019 in the Stade de Suisse Wankdorf Bern against

. Striker

Albian Ajeti Albian Afrim Ajeti (born 26 February 1997) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a striker for Austrian Bundesliga club Sturm Graz, on loan from Celtic, and the Switzerland national team. He has previously played for Basel (two spel ...

scored the first goal,

Fabian Frei Fabian Frei (born 8 January 1989) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder and a centre-back for Swiss Super League club Basel and the Switzerland national team. Until June 2011, he played for the Swiss U-21 team. ...

the second for Basel, then

Dejan Sorgić Dejan Sorgić ( sr-cyr, Дејан Соргић; born 15 September 1989) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a forward for FC Luzern. Career On 20 July 2016, he joined Thun on a two-year contract. In October 2021, Sorgić returned t ...

netted a goal for Thun, but the end result was 2–1 for Basel. Zuffi played in five cup games, inclusive the final, and scored one goal, this being in the quarter final against Sion. On 22 May 2021 the club announced that Zuffi's contract that would expire 30 June 2021 would not be renewed. Between the years 2014 and 2021 Zuffi played seven seasons for Basel in a total of 327 games scoring a total of 40 goals. Exactly 200 of these games were in the

, 22 in the

, 30 in the

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 ...

, 19 in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

and 56 were friendly games. He scored 27 goals in the domestic league, two in the domestic cup, four in the Champions League, three in the Europa League and the other four were scored during the test games.

Sion

On 17 June 2021, he signed a three-year contract with

International career

Zuffi made his Switzerland debut in October 2015 by starting in a 7–0 win over San Marino. He was included in the provisional squad but, however, was cut from the final squad for

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

. In his time with the national team Zuffi had four appearances for his country.

Personal life

Luca Zuffi is the son of the former Swiss international

, who is now assistant coach for

. Luca has two brothers, Nico and Sandro, who are also footballers.

Honours

Basel *

: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17 *

winner: 2016–17, 2018–19 Individual *Swiss Super League Midfielder of the Year: 2015–16

References

External links

Profile at Swiss Football League homepage

Profile at Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv” homepage
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zuffi, Luca 1990 births Living people People from Winterthur Association football midfielders Swiss men's footballers Switzerland youth international footballers Switzerland international footballers Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players FC Thun players FC Winterthur players FC Basel players FC Sion players Sportspeople from the canton of Zürich