Michael Rico Lang (born 8 February 1991) is a Swiss professional

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 ...

who plays as a defender for Swiss Super League club

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 ...

and the Switzerland national team.

Club career

St. Gallen, Grasshopper

Lang began his professional career at

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 ...

in the Swiss Super League. He played his first league match at age 16, making him one of the youngest debut players in the Swiss Football League. In the summer 2011 he signed a four-year contract with Grasshopper Club Zürich, the Swiss record football champion. In the 2012–13 season he won the Swiss Cup with the club in the final against FC Basel. The Grasshopper club played two years in a row the qualification for the Champions League. But they lost their games against Olympique Lyon (2013) and OSC Lille (2014).

Basel

On 1 June 2015, Lang joined

on a free transfer. He made his first team league debut on 19 July 2015 in the 2–0 home win against

Vaduz Vaduz ( or , High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' Hrsg. ...

. He scored his first goal for his new club just one week later on 25 July during the away game against his old club Grasshopper Club. It was the last goal of the game and Basel won 3–2. 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 ...

Lang won the Swiss Super League championship at the end of the 2015–16 Super League season and again at the end of the 2016–17 Super League season. For the club this was the eighth title in a row and their 20th championship title in total. They also won the Swiss Cup for the twelfth time, which meant they had won the double for the sixth time in the club's history. Lang scored his first Champions League goal in the

2017–18 UEFA Champions League group stage The 2017–18 UEFA Champions League group stage began on 12 September and ended on 6 December 2017. A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout phase of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League. Draw The draw ...

home game on 27 September against Benfica. It was the first goal of the game that Basel won 5–0. Following this, on 22 November, in the home game against Manchester United he scored the winning goal in the 89th minute as Basel won 1–0. In the knockout phase, when playing Manchester City, Lang again scored the winning goal in the 71st minute as Basel won 2–1 and ended a 15-month unbeaten home run of their opponent.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

In June 2018, Lang joined Borussia Mönchengladbach for the 2018–19 season having agreed a four-year contract. The transfer fee paid to Basel was reported as €2.8 million. On 29 August 2019, Lang joined SV Werder Bremen on a season-long loan deal for the

2019–20 Bundesliga The 2019–20 Bundesliga was the 57th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football competition. It began on 16 August 2019 and concluded on 27 June 2020. Bayern Munich were the defending champions, and won their record-extending 8th con ...

season with an option to buy included.

International career

Lang with Switzerland in 2015 Lang made his first senior international appearance for Switzerland on 14 August 2013 in the friendly against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. He came on as a second-half substitute for Stephan Lichtsteiner as the team won 1–0 at

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 ...

. He scored his first goal in his second appearance later on 11 October in the 2–1 win against

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

in match 9 of 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification Group E; this win clinched Switzerland's place at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Lang was called by manager

Ottmar Hitzfeld Ottmar Hitzfeld (; born 12 January 1949) is a German former professional football player ( striker) and manager. He accumulated a total of 18 major titles, mostly in his tenures with Grasshopper Club Zürich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. ...

in the squad of 23 players for the final tournament. He played his first and only match of the campaign in the final Group E game against Honduras, entering in the final 13 minutes. Switzerland was eventually knocked out of the tournament by

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

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 ...

. He was part of the squad for the 2016 European Championships where the team achieved the best result reaching round of 16. He was included in Switzerland's 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He was sent off in Switzerland's 1–0 defeat to Sweden in the round of 16 for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity in the 90+4th minute, becoming the only player in to tournament to be sent off in the knockout stage In May 2019, he played in 2019 UEFA Nations League Finals, where his team finished 4th.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:. ''Switzerland score listed first, score column indicates score after each Lang goal.''

Honours

Grasshopper * Swiss Cup:

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 ...

Basel * Swiss Super League: 2015–16, 2016–17 * Swiss Cup: 2016–17

References

External links

Profile on the Swiss Football League homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Michael 1991 births Living people Association football defenders Swiss men's footballers Switzerland international footballers Switzerland youth international footballers Swiss expatriate footballers FC St. Gallen players Grasshopper Club Zürich players FC Basel players Borussia Mönchengladbach players SV Werder Bremen players Swiss Super League players Bundesliga players 2014 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2016 players 2018 FIFA World Cup players Expatriate footballers in Germany People from Arbon District Sportspeople from Thurgau