Gaëlle Thalmann (born 18 January 1986) 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 lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Club career

Thalmann started her career at the age of nine with

FC Bulle FC Bulle is a Swiss football club, based in Bulle. Their home ground is the Stade de Bouleyres. They currently play in Promotion League, the third tier of Swiss football. History Founded in 1910, they last played in the Swiss top tier in 1 ...

on a boys' team coached by her father. She played forward at this time and later switched to goalkeeper at age 14, when she advanced to the women's team FC Riaz. Two years later she joined FC Vétroz in Nationalliga B, the second highest tier of football in Switzerland. Her first senior camp was FC Rot-Schwarz Thun, where she suffered a serious

anterior cruciate ligament injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during in ...

. After one year, she switched to

FFC Zuchwil 05 FFC Zuchwil 05 is a women's football club from Zuchwil, Switzerland. Founded in 1970 in Solothurn as the women's section of DFC Solothurn, which moved to Zuchwil twenty years later, the team was refounded in 2005 as FFC Zuchwil 05 after the Sw ...

, with whom she became vice-champion and league cup winner in 2006. This was followed by a move to

FC Luzern Frauen FC Luzern Frauen is a women's football club from Lucerne, Switzerland. The team is the successor of the women's section of FC Sursee, and was named SC LUwin.ch at the start. History LUwin.ch After the Swiss Football Association allowed dedicate ...

. After a trial at

1. FFC Turbine Potsdam 1. Frauenfußballclub Turbine Potsdam 71 e. V., commonly known as 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam (or Turbine Potsdam outside of Germany), is a German women's football club located in Potsdam, Brandenburg. They are one of the most successful women's footb ...

, she signed a contract there on 8 January 2008 until 30 June 2009, joining the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

, the top league of football in Germany. Her first Bundesliga game was completed on 24 February 2008 in an away game against

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

. In 2009 she won with her team the DFB indoor cup and the German Championship. For the 2009/10 season she moved to Hamburger SV. In 2010 she returned to Switzerland, with

Grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

. She played with

1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig 1. Fußballclub Lokomotive Leipzig e.V. is a German football club based in the locality of Probstheida in the Südost borough of Leipzig, Saxony. The club was previously known as VfB Leipzig and was the first national champion of Germany. It h ...

, and then joined top level Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club ASD Torres. In the summer of 2014 she moved to

MSV Duisburg Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. Duisburg, commonly known as simply MSV Duisburg (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Nicknamed ''Die Zebras'' for their traditional striped jer ...

. After MSV Duisburg's relegation to the second division, Thalmann returned to Switzerland and 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 ...

. In 2016 she moved to the Italian league for A.S.D. Bardolino Verona C.F. In the summer of 2019 she left Italy to return to Switzerland, to Servette Chênois. She played at Servette Chênois for two seasons, before moving to

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

in Spain in July 2021. Following the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's association football, football championship contested by List of women's national association football teams, women's nat ...

, Thalmann retired from football.

International career

Thalmann played her first international match with the Swiss U19 national team on 6 October 2002 in the match won by Switzerland 5-0 against the selection of Hungary in the first qualifying round for the UEFA European U19 Championship. She took part in the U20 World Cup in Russia. Thalmann represents Switzerland on a senior level since 17 June 2007. Her debut was in a friendly match, playing for one half against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Stenia Michel took over as Switzerland's first-choice goalkeeper in the run up to the 2015 FIFA World Cup, when Thalmann had her anterior cruciate ligament injury. Thalmann took part in the 2022 European Championship and played in goal for the Swiss team in all three group games. Switzerland was eliminated after the preliminary round. On 11 July 2023, she was included in the 23-player squad for the

in Australia and New Zealand. In the second group game of the Women's World Cup against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, Thalmann had a Player of the Match performance with four saves that held Switzerland onto a 0–0 draw.

Honours

Club

Frauen-Bundesliga The Frauen-Bundesliga (German language, German for ''Women's Federal League''), currently known as the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of league competition for women's association football in Germany. I ...

: 2008–09 *

: 2012–13 *

Swiss Women's Cup The Swiss Women's Cup (; ; ; ) is a women's football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1975 by the Swiss Football Association (SFV-ASF). Finals All final matches are: Titles by club References External linksfootball.c ...

: 2005–06 *

DFB-Pokal Frauen The DFB-Pokal Frauen is the main national Women's association football, women's football cup competition in Germany, held annually by the German Football Association in knockout format. It was created in 1980, and since 1991 includes Eastern teams ...

: 2009 *

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana, also known as the Italian Super Cup, is an annual super cup tournament in Italian football. Founded in 1988 as a two-team competition, it has featured four teams since 2023 (the winners and runners-up of the previous ...

: 2012, 2013

International

* Cyprus Women's Cup:

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Individual

* Award for sporting merit in the

Canton of Fribourg The canton of Fribourg, also canton of Freiburg, is located in western Switzerland. The canton is bilingual, with French spoken by more than two thirds of the citizens and German by a little more than a quarter. Both are official languages in th ...

References

External links

Torres profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thalmann, Gaelle 1986 births Living people Women's Super League (Switzerland) players 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam players Hamburger SV (women) players MSV Duisburg (women) players Torres Calcio Femminile players A.S.D. AGSM Verona F.C. players Swiss women's footballers Expatriate women's footballers in Germany Expatriate women's footballers in Italy Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Italy Switzerland women's international footballers People from Bulle 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Frauen-Bundesliga players Women's association football goalkeepers ACF Fiorentina (women) players Grasshopper Club Zurich (women) players FC Basel Frauen players US Sassuolo Calcio (women) players Atalanta Mozzanica Calcio Femminile Dilettantistico players Serie A (women's football) players Footballers from the canton of Fribourg UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players Swiss expatriate women's footballers FIFA Women's Century Club FFC Zuchwil 05 players 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players 21st-century Swiss sportswomen