Xavier Margairaz (born 7 January 1984) 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

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 ...

Club career

Margairaz was born in

Rances Rances refers to the following places: * Rances, Switzerland Rances () is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History Rances is first mentioned around 972-73 as ''Rancias''. The name of Ra ...

. After beginning professionally with

FC 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 ...

and

Neuchâtel Xamax , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France ...

, he was part of the 2005–06 and 2006–07

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

-winning teams of Fussballclub Zürich. In May 2007, Margairaz signed a three-year contract with

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

side

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El Sa ...

, where he struggled with first-team opportunities. In late February 2008, in a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

with

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in eu, Eibar Kirol Elkartea) is a professional Spanish football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the team currently plays in the Segunda División, the s ...

, he suffered a serious knee injury (

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

, internal lateral ligament and external

meniscus Meniscus may refer to: *Meniscus (anatomy), crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous structure that partly divides a joint cavity *Meniscus (liquid) The meniscus (plural: ''menisci'', from the Greek for "crescent") is the curve in the upper surface ...

). After a successful surgery in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, he missed

UEFA 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 European ...

as his recovery process was estimated to be of at least eight months; this happened a week after another serious knee-injured

central 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 ...

of the

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

se club,

Javad Nekounam Javad Nekounam ( fa, جواد نکونام; born 7 September 1980) is an Iranian retired professional association football, footballer who played as a central midfielder and is the current manager (association football), manager of Foolad F.C., F ...

, began training. On 14 January 2009, Margairaz moved back to FC Zürich on loan until the end of the season. In June, after he helped the team to another league title and Osasuna received

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

400.000, the move was made permanent. On 15 September 2009, Margairaz became Zürich's first scorer 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 ...

, netting in a 2–5 home loss against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

in the group stage. In January 2012, he moved to

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 ...

on a three-and-a-half year contract, leaving in June of the following year.

International career

A member of the Swiss national team since 2005, Margairaz was called up to 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 ...

, where he had two late substitute appearances.

Personal life

Margairaz's older brother, Sascha, was also a footballer. He played mainly in the lower leagues and amateur football.

Honours

Zürich *

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 ...

: 2005–06, 2006–07, 2008–09 *

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

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Margairaz, Xavier 1984 births Living people People from Jura-North Vaudois District Swiss-French people Swiss men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players FC Lausanne-Sport players Neuchâtel Xamax FCS players FC Zürich players FC Sion players Servette FC players La Liga players CA Osasuna players Switzerland men's international footballers 2006 FIFA World Cup players Swiss expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Spain Footballers from the canton of Vaud