Daniel Unal (born 18 January 1990) is a Swiss former

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 lea ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

Unal played his youth football with

FC Locarno FC Locarno is a Swiss association football, football club based in Locarno in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland. As of the 2019–20 season, Locarno play in the Swiss sixth level, 2. Liga (Switzerland), 2. Liga. His ...

and in 2005 he moved to

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 Sw ...

. In 2006 he advanced to their first team, who at that time played in the Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football. With them he made seventeen appearances, scoring one goal, in his first and only season with the team. He was loaned to the U21-Team of

A.S. Roma Associazione Sportiva Roma (''Rome Sport Association''; Italian pronunciation: ) is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its exis ...

for the 2007/08 season and was set to sign on a permanent contract, as

Bellinzona Bellinzona ( , ; ; is a municipality, a List of towns in Switzerland, historic Swiss town, and the capital of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The town is famous for its Three Castles of Bellinzona, three castles (Castelgrande, Montebello, Sa ...

and

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

had a deal for players exchanges, but, instead he signed for

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

. On 8 July 2008 Unal signed a two-year contract with an option for a third year. In his first season with Basel, he played exclusively in the FC Basel U-21 team, having 20 appearances and scoring three goals. However he played in five test matches in the first few months of 2009, coming on each time as substitute. Unal joined Basel's first team in advance of their 2009–10 season under new head coach

Thorsten Fink Thorsten Fink (born 29 October 1967) is a German football coach and a former footballer, who is the head coach of Belgian Pro League club KRC Genk. Playing career Fink began his career with Borussia Dortmund's reserve squad before moving to S ...

. After playing in seven further test games Unal played his debut with the team on 17 September 2009 in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League group stage, also coming on as substitute, as Basel won 2–0 against

. Three days later, he played his

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

debut for the club in the away game on 20 September as Basel won 3–0 against

SC Cham SC Cham 1910 is a Swiss football team based in Cham and currently play in the Promotion League, the third tier of Swiss football. The team were founded in 1910. History The club was founded on 14 June 1910 and was the first football club in ...

. He played the full 90 minutes. He played his domestic league debut for the club in the 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 ...

on 23 September as Basel won 4–0 against St. Gallen, again coming on as substitute. At the end of the 2009–10 season he won the

Double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

with his 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 * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

Championship title with 3 points advantage over second placed Young Boys. The team won the

, winning the final 6–0 against Lausanne-Sport. Unal had appeared in three of the cup games. Again this season he played mainly in the Basel U-21 team. In the following season Unal played in two cup and four league matches, again playing mainly with the U-21 team. With Basel, Unal won his second Swiss Championship at the end of the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season, topping the table just one point clear of rivals

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. Basel and Unal agreed not to extent their contract. During the time with the club's first team, Unal played a total of 51 games for Basel scoring seven goals. Six of these games were in the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

, five in the

, one in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

and 39 were friendly games. He scored all seven goals during the test games. During his time with Basel, Unal attracted the interests of

FC Twente Football Club Twente (), sometimes known internationally as FC Twente Enschede, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub E ...

, but it never came to a deal. During summer 2011 he returned home and signed a two year team with his club of origin

. In his first season he had diverse appearances, but he was handicapped through injuries. In summer 2013 he was again without club and he retired from professional football.

International

Unal played two years for the Switzerland U-19 team. With the team he played in the

2008 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification UEFA U-19 Championship 2008 (qualifying round) was the first round of qualifications for the final tournament of 2008 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. 52 teams were split into 13 groups of 4 and teams in each group played each other once. The ...

. In the game on 10 October 2007 he scored two goals as the Swiss won 6–1 against Kazakhstan U-19. He also played in the

2009 UEFA European Under-19 Championship elite qualification The Elite Round of the 2009 UEFA European Under-19 Championship is the second round of qualification. The winners of each group join hosts Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second- ...

with the team. In the match on 7 June 2009 he scored a goal as the Swiss won 6–1 against Republic of Ireland U-19. He was also a Switzerland under-20s international player.

Honours

Basel *

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

References

Sources

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

External links

Profile at FC Basel

Profile at Swiss Football League Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unal, Daniel 1990 births Living people Assyrian sportspeople Swiss men's footballers Switzerland men's youth international footballers Swiss people of Assyrian descent Swiss sportspeople of Turkish descent AC Bellinzona players AS Roma players FC Basel players FC Locarno players Swiss Super League players Swiss expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Men's association football midfielders Sportspeople from Locarno Assyrian footballers Footballers from Ticino 21st-century Swiss sportsmen