He FC Thun has made history and is proclaimed Swiss league champion. St. Gallen’s defeat against Sion this Sunday at the Stockhorn Arena was enough for the Bernese Oberland club to won the first league title in its 127-year history. He had never won anything in the first division. Two Cup finals lost and a runners-up finish in 2005 as a historic high.
The Thun had chained two consecutive defeats (Lugano and Basel) in the championship group, but the St. Gallen’s stumble leaves the title mathematically in their hands. The last time a newly promoted team won the Super League was in 1952, when Grasshopper did so by a single point. Thun have done it in an absolutely dominant way, with a advantage that reached 18 points on the second classified.
Thun, the miracle of Swiss football: “If we win, it changes all of our lives”
They began the season with the second most economical squad in the league and the only stated objective of staying in the category. But something happened in the first days. They won, they competed against everyone, they became strong at home and resisted abroad. Towards matchday eight and nine, they lost in a row against Young Boys and Basel—the two giants of Swiss football—and instead of collapsing, they took first place and did not go down from there all year. Of the last 13 games of the regular phase, they won 12. No team scored more goals or conceded fewer.
A couple of weeks ago, before the group of champions even began, they had already beaten Basel 3-1 at the Stockhorn on the last day of the regular championship, which had been postponed due to locker room fire of Shaqiri’s. The defeat of his pursuer has been the final point. Mauro Lustrinelliwho 20 years ago scored the goals that took Thun to the Champions League and who now leads the team from the bench, has achieved something that no one had achieved in 127 years.
Thun players and fans celebrating a victory over Basel.
In the center of the defense that has contributed enormously to this title there is a Spaniard who was on the verge of leaving football. Genis Montolio He arrived in Switzerland as a last bullet when he was earning between 1,000 and 2,000 euros in Second B and saw that his career had no horizon. Today he is champion of Switzerland. A few days ago, when the title was already close, MARCA told it: “I think that all the players, even the coaching staff, if we win the League this year it could change all of our lives. We are not a team whose players earn millions or have played in important leagues”. Today that phrase is already a reality.
What comes next is the qualifying round of the Champions Leaguethe dream that Genís admitted he could not get out of his head in recent weeks. “The Champions League is something else. Like a World Cup, like a Euro Cup, the Champions League is the tournament”. Thun will have to pass the qualifying round, but the club that last summer only wanted to survive in the first division has shown this season that the limits are there to be ignored. Today the gateway to the Bernese Oberland will experience its most festive night in years.