Simone Grippo (born 12 December 1988) 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 le ...

who plays for FC Lausanne-Sport as a

central defender 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 was a Swiss youth international footballer.

Career

Club

Born and living in Ettingen, Grippo started his youth football with the local amateur club FC Ettingen. In the summer of 2005, Grippo joined the youth department of

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 ...

and played in their U-18 team during the 2005–06 season, under coach

Patrick Rahmen Patrick Rahmen (born 3 April 1969) is a Swiss football coach and former player who last worked as head coach for Basel. He played as midfielder or forward. Club career Patrick Rahmen learned his football skill playing with Nordstern Basel and t ...

and his assistant

Marco Walker Marco Walker (born 2 May 1970) is a Swiss football manager and a former international who played as a defender during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Club career Walker started his youth football with local club FC Bellach. From 1983 with he was ...

and with them won both the Swiss U-18 championship and the U-19/18 national cup that season. In the summer of 2006 he advanced to join their U-21 team and before the season started attended the trainings of the first team under head coach Christian Gross. After playing in two test games, Grippo played his debut for the team in the first qualifying round of the

2006–07 UEFA Cup The 2006–07 UEFA Cup was the 36th UEFA Cup, Europe's second-tier club football tournament. On 16 May 2007, at Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Sevilla won their second consecutive UEFA Cup, defeating Espanyol 3–1 on penalties after the match ...

, on 13 July 2006. He was in the starting eleven, playing as central midfielder, as Basel played a 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 ...

and they won 3–1 against Kazakhi side

FC Tobol FC Tobol ( kk, Тобыл футбол клубы, Tobyl Futbol Kluby) is a Kazakh professional football club based at the Central Stadium in Kostanay. They have been members of the Kazakhstan Premier League since its foundation in 1992. They ...

. On 12 July 2007 Basel announced that they were loaning Grippo out to local feeder club FC Concordia Basel for the 2007–08 Challenge League season. Originally it had been a six month loan period to Concordia, but in December the two clubs, together with the player, agreed to extended it into a full season loan. Grippo had 25 league and two cup appearances, scoring a total of five goals. Concordia ended the league season in seventh position. In summer 2008 he was loaned out to AC Bellinzona, but before he could play any competitive games, he left them again and on 5 August it was announced that he signed for A.C. ChievoVerona of Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

on a permanent contract. He made his first appearance for Chievo Verona on 11 January 2009, which resulted in a 1–1 draw against FC Bologna. The young prospect was loaned successively to Piacenza, Lumezzane,

Frosinone Frosinone (, local dialect: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is located about south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of the Va ...

and then to

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 ...

. Grippo's loan to Piacenza was for the second half of the

2008–09 Serie B The 2008–09 Serie B season was the seventy-seventh since its establishment. A total of 22 teams will contest the league, 15 of which will be returning from the 2007–08 season, four of which will have been promoted from Serie C1 (now Lega P ...

. He was with Lumezzane, in the Serie C during the 2009–10 season. With Frosinone he played the

2010–11 Serie B The 2010–11 Serie B (known as the Serie bwin for sponsorship reasons) is the seventy-ninth season since its establishment in 1929, and the first one under the rule of the new Lega Serie B. A total of 22 teams contest the league, 15 of which ret ...

season, but at the end they suffered relegation. For the second half of 2011–12 Challenge League season Grippo was loaned back to Switzerland and played for

, where he will establish himself as a defender in the starting formation. On 15 July 2012

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 ...

club Servette announced that they had signed a 3-year contract with Grippo. He made his debut in a 5–1 away defeat against

Lausanne-Sport FC Lausanne–Sport (also referred to as LS) is a Swiss football club based in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud. Founded in 1896, Lausanne Sport played in the Swiss Super League in their most recent 2021-22 season, the highest tier of football i ...

. However, before the winter break he suffered an injury and was out for over six months with persistent bursitis of the knee, then at the end of the

2012–13 Swiss Super League The 2012–13 Swiss Super League, also known as Raiffeisen Super League for sponsoring purposes, was the 116th season of top-tier football in Switzerland. It began on 14 July 2012 and ended on 2 June 2013. Basel successfully defended their titl ...

season his contract was dissolved as Servette suffered relegation. During his recovery from his knee problems, he had kept himself fit training with

under observation of their medical team, because he was not under contract with a club. On 19 December 2013, the Swiss Football League (SFL) announced that Grippo had signed for

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. ...

and he stayed with them for three and a half seasons. In his first, the team became

2013–14 Swiss Challenge League The 2013–14 Swiss Challenge League (known for sponsorship reasons as the Brack.ch Challenge League) was the 11th season of the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier in the Swiss football pyramid. It began on 13 July 2013 and ended on 18 May 2 ...

champions and won promotion. But in his last the team suffered relegation. During his time with Vaduz he made 97 league appearances, scoring seven goals. Also during this time the team won the Liechtensteiner Cup four times. He left the club at the end of June 2017, because he did not extend his expiring contract. On 13 June 2017, he signed a two-year contract with Spanish

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

side

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

. On 13 January 2020, he signed for Segunda side

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo is a Spanish football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926 as a result of the merger of two clubs who had maintained a large sporting rivalry for years in the city: ''Real Stadium Club Ovetense'' and ''Real Club De ...

and he was team captain until the end of the season. In 2021 Grippo returned to Switzerland, on 29 August

announced that they had signed a contract with Grippo for the

2021–22 Swiss Super League The 2021–22 Swiss Super League (referred to as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsoring reasons) was the 125th season of top-tier competitive football in Switzerland and the 19th under its current name and format. A total of ten teams c ...

season. However at the end of the season the team suffered relegation. After the relegation with Lausanne, Grippo remained combative. In an interview he promised to stay with the club and it was his aim for an immediate promotion at the end of the

2022–23 Swiss Challenge League The 2022–23 Swiss Challenge League (referred to as the Dieci Challenge League for sponsoring reasons) is the 125th season of the second tier of competitive football in Switzerland and the 20th season under its current name. Overview Ten teams w ...

season. This was achieved as division runners-up.

International

Grippo is of Italian descent. He was a youth international for Switzerland.

Honours

;Basel * Swiss Champion at U-18 level: 2005–06 * Swiss Cup Winner at U-19/U-18 level: 2005–06 ;Lumezzane *

Coppa Italia Serie C Coppa Italia Serie C ( it, Serie C Italian Cup), formerly named Coppa Italia Lega Pro, is a straight knock-out based competition involving teams from Serie C in Italian football first held in 1972. Format There are a total of six rounds in the c ...

: 2009–10 ;Vaduz *

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 ...

: 2013–14 * Liechtensteiner Cup: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17

References

Sources

External links

Profile at FC Basel Archive
*
Profile at Lega-Calcio.it
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grippo, Simone Living people 1988 births Men's association football central defenders Swiss men's footballers Switzerland men's under-21 international footballers Switzerland men's youth international footballers Swiss people of Italian descent Swiss expatriate men's footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Italy Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players Serie A players Serie B players Segunda División players FC Basel players FC Concordia Basel players AC Bellinzona players AC ChievoVerona players Piacenza Calcio 1919 players FC Lumezzane players Frosinone Calcio players FC Lugano players Servette FC players FC Vaduz players Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Liechtenstein Expatriate men's footballers in Liechtenstein Real Zaragoza players Real Oviedo players FC Lausanne-Sport players