Ronny Hodel (born 27 October 1982) is a Swiss former 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 le ...

who played as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He started out with local club

FC Luzern Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (german: Luzern). It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league syste ...

in 2000 before moving on to

BSC Young Boys BSC Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation ) are a Swiss sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 15 Swiss league championships and six Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss football clubs internationally, reac ...

in 2005. He played there for two years until he was signed by

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 the end of the 2006/07 season. He was considered one of the best left-backs in Switzerland despite never making his full international debut.

Football career

Born in

Horw Horw (; Swiss German: ''Horb'') is a municipality in the district of Lucerne in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland. History Horw is first mentioned in 1231 as ''Horwe''. Geography Horw has an area of . Of this area, 32.6% is used for agri ...

Lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...

, Hodel played his youth football with local club

Luzern , neighboring_municipalities= Adligenswil, Ebikon, Emmen, Horw, Kriens, Malters, Meggen, Neuenkirch Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a ...

coming through the ranks. In summer 2000 he advanced from their U-21 team and joined their first team under head coach Andy Egli. In his second season with the team he became a regular player in the starting eleven. After the season 2002–03 Luzern suffered relegation. Hodel stayed with the team another two seasons. Then he felt he had to move to a bigger club if he wanted to improve as a footballer and he made this known. In 2005 Luzern advanced to the final of 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 ...

, but they lost the game 3–1. Hodel won the runners-up medal.

signed him at the start of the 2005/06 season where he quickly broke into first team. He started to push for a place in the international set-up and was tipped to be included in the Swiss squad for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

in Germany but left-backs

Christoph Spycher Christoph Spycher (born 30 March 1978) is Swiss former professional footballer who played as a left-back. Spycher is chief sports officer of BSC Young Boys. Career Born in Wolhusen, Spycher played for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga for ...

and

Ludovic Magnin Ludovic Magnin (; born 20 April 1979) is a Swiss football manager and a former player. He is the manager of Lausanne-Sport. He played as a left-back for the Switzerland national team, Yverdon Sport, FC Lugano, Werder Bremen, VfB Stuttgart, and ...

were chosen instead. Hodel remains uncapped at full international stage but has one U-20 and three U-21 caps. On 13 June 2007

announced that they had signed Hodel on a three year contract. He was given the No.3 shirt. He is left-footed and was used primarily in the left corridor as a defender or midfielder. He joined Basel's first team for their 2007–08 season under head coach

Christian Gross Christian Jürgen Gross (born 14 August 1954) is a Swiss football manager and former player who most recently coached Schalke 04. He played as a sweeper and central midfielder. Gross was manager of Basel from 1 July 1999 to 27 May 2009, winning ...

. After playing in seven test games Hodel played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game in the

Stadion Wankdorf The Wankdorf Stadium (; between 2005 and 2020 known as Stade de Suisse) is a football stadium in Bern, Switzerland. The second largest all-seater football stadium in Switzerland, it currently serves as the home ground of the Swiss football team ...

on 5 August as Basel were defeated 1–5 against Hodel's ex-club Young Boys. At the end of the 2007–08 season he won the

Double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

with the club. They won the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

Championship title with four points advantage over second placed Young Boys. In the

via FC Léchelles,

SC Binningen Sport Club Binningen is a Swiss football club based in Binningen. Founded in 1920, the club competes in 2. Liga, the fifth tier of the Swiss Football League. They play at Spiegelfeld, a stadium in Binningen which opened in 2005 and has a capaci ...

, Grasshopper Club,

Stade Nyonnais FC Stade Nyonnais is an association football club based in the town of Nyon, Switzerland. The team currently competes in the Promotion League, the third tier of the Swiss football league system and plays its home matches at Stade de Colovray, ...

and in the semi-final

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

, Basel advanced to the final, and winning this 4–1 against

AC Bellinzona AC Bellinzona is a Swiss football club based in Bellinzona. It was founded in 1904, and won the Swiss Super League in 1948. After being folded in 2013 declaring bankruptcy, the team played the Ticino Group of 2.Liga, the sixth tier of the Swi ...

they won the competition. Hodel played in four of the six cup matches but not in the final. To the beginning of the 2008–09 season he was member of the Basel team that won the

Uhrencup The Uhrencup is a club football tournament, held annually in Grenchen and Biel in Switzerland. The Uhrencup is seen as a testament to the major influence that is exercised by the local industry on the cultural lives of the areas residents. The tou ...

. They beat

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning record 15 Ekstraklasa champions titles, a ...

6–1 and played a 2–2 draw with

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

to end the table on top slot above Dortmund and

. But as the season progressed Hodel became increasingly less playing time and in the second half of the season he was not considered for play at all, which also had to do with a knee injury. On 18 June 2009, he was released by Basel after newly appointed manager

Thorsten Fink Thorsten Fink (born 29 October 1967) is a German football coach and a former footballer, currently works as manager of Riga FC. Career Fink began his career with Borussia Dortmund's reserve squad before moving to SG Wattenscheid 09, where he hel ...

decided not to offer him a new contract.Eduardo, Hodel and Gjaslura released by Basel
During his time with the club, Hodel played a total of 62 games for Basel without scoring a goal. 25 of these games were in 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 ...

, four in the

, six in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 27 were friendly games. He then signed for

FK Ventspils FK Ventspils is a Latvian football club, based at Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions in Ventspils city and is one of the most popular football clubs in the country. The club played in the Latvian Virsliga since 1997. It was abolished in 2020, but h ...

of the

Latvian Higher League Latvian Higher League or Virslīga is a professional football league and the top tier of association football in Latvia. Organised by the Latvian Football Federation, the Higher League is contested by 10 clubs. The full name of the league is Op ...

. In February 2010 he left Ventspils. He had expected to sign for

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 ...

from Switzerland but during the medical tests an anomaly in his knee was found and it was not known whether he would be able to continue his career or not. Hodel joined

SC Cham SC Cham 1910 is a Swiss football team which plays in the third tier of the Swiss football pyramid. They are based in Cham and were founded in 1910. History The club was founded on 14 June 1910 and was the first football club in Canton Zug. ...

, who at that time played in the Promotion League, the third tier of Swiss football. However, due to continuous knee problems, at the end of 2010 he ended his professional career.

Honours

FC Luzern *

runner-up: 2005 Basel *

: 2008 *

: 2008 * Uhren Cup: 2008

References

Sources

* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodel, Ronny 1982 births Living people Association football fullbacks Swiss footballers FC Luzern players BSC Young Boys players FC Basel players SC Cham players Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players Swiss Promotion League players Switzerland youth international footballers Expatriate footballers in Latvia Swiss expatriate footballers Sportspeople from the canton of Lucerne