Daniel Gygax (born 28 August 1981) 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, rugb ...

who played as a

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 ...

. Gygax earned 35 caps for the Swiss national team, playing at two European Championships and 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 th ...

Career

Gygax was born in

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Z ...

. On 7 July 2008, Gygax moved to

1. FC Nürnberg 1. Fußball-Club Nürnberg Verein für Leibesübungen e. V., often called 1. FC Nürnberg (, en, 1. Football Club Nuremberg) or simply Nürnberg, is a German association football club in Nuremberg, Bavaria, who currently compete in the 2. Bund ...

in Germany. He left the team on 30 June 2010 to join

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 ...

. Gygax along with another signing

Hakan Yakin Hakan Yakin ( tr, Hakan Yakın; born 22 February 1977) is a Swiss football coach and a former player who played as a forward or midfielder. He is the manager of Schaffhausen. He was a member of the Swiss national team for eleven years. Early ...

has helped their team to a surprise lead 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 seaso ...

with half of the season gone. He scored seven goals during the season. Gygax retired at the end of the 2016–17 season, aged 35.

International career

Gygax made his debut for the Swiss national team on 31 March 2004, replacing

after 60 minutes of a 1–0 friendly loss to

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

Heraklion Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Gree ...

. He scored his first goal on his fourth cap, the only goal in a friendly win over

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German language, German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constit ...

on 6 June. At

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

, he played in Switzerland's last two group games, and he also played the first two group games at the

. His last of 35 internationals was on 11 June 2008, as a late substitute in a group game against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

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 ...

which the Swiss co-hosted.

International goals

:Source: , - , 1. , , 6 June 2004 , , Hardturm,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, , , , 1–0 , , 1–0 , , Friendly , - , 2. , , 9 February 2005 , , Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium,

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, wikt:دبي, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates#Major cities, most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...

, , , , 1–0 , , 2–1 , , Friendly , - , 3. , , 7 September 2005 , ,

GSP Stadium Gymnastic Club "The Pancyprians" Stadium (GSP Stadium) ( el, Στάδιο Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος "Τα Παγκύπρια") is a football stadium in Strovolos, Nicosia District, Cyprus. Although small by international standards ...

, Strovolos,

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

, , , , 3–1 , , 3–1 , ,

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America) ...

, - , 4. , , 1 March 2006 , ,

Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

, Scotland , , , , 2–0 , , 3–1 , , Friendly , - , 5. , , 31 May 2006 , ,

Stade de Genève Stade de Genève, also called Stade de la Praille, is a stadium in Lancy, Canton of Geneva. It has a capacity of 30,084. Overview The stadium was completed in 2003 by Zschokke Construction S.A. after nearly three years of construction. Normall ...

Lancy Lancy is a municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. History Lancy is first mentioned in 1097 as ''Lanciaco'' meaning "fearless". Geography Lancy has an area, , of . Of this area, or 5.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or ...

, Switzerland , , , , 1–1 , , 1–1 , , Friendly

Honours

FC Zürich *

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 ...

: 2004–05

References

External links

Daniel Gygax
at FC Luzern *

at Eurosport {{DEFAULTSORT:Gygax, Daniel 1981 births Living people Footballers from Zürich Association football wingers Association football forwards Swiss men's footballers Swiss expatriate footballers Switzerland international footballers Switzerland under-21 international footballers UEFA Euro 2004 players 2006 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2008 players FC Baden players FC Zürich players FC Winterthur players FC Aarau players Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players Ligue 1 players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Lille OSC players FC Metz players 1. FC Nürnberg players Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Germany Swiss-German people