David Sesa (born 10 July 1973) is a Swiss football manager and former player. He is the manager of Rapperswil-Jona. 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 ...

or forward, he made 36 appearances for the Switzerland national team. He is the current manager of Bellinzona in the Swiss Challenge League.

Club career

Sesa started his career in Switzerland playing for

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles a ...

and

FC Baden FC Baden is a Swiss football club based in Baden, Canton Aargau, which is a short distance from Zürich. It was founded in 1897. FC Baden has a total of 22 different teams at age levels, including five women's teams. They play in the Swiss Promo ...

before having his breakthrough during his stint at Servette Geneva. In 1998, he moved to Italy to join

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

club Lecce, winning promotion to

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

on his first season. His second season in Italy gained him interest from

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, who signed him for 16 billion

Italian lira The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually ...

in 2000. His stay at Napoli however turned out to be rather unimpressive, and he suffered relegation with his club on his first season with the ''Azzurri''. He was released by Napoli in 2004, after the club folded due to financial troubles, and returned to Switzerland to play for

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss football club based in Aarau. They play in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was formed on 26 May 1902 by workers from a local br ...

. In 2005, he returned to Italy, playing in the lower professional tiers with Palazzolo,

SPAL Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, commonly known as S.P.A.L. (), is a professional football club based in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The team plays in Serie B, the second tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in 1907, sinc ...

and Rovigo before retiring in 2010.

International career

Sesa has played for the Switzerland national team and was a participant at the

1996 UEFA European Championship The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to ...

Style of play

Sesa was capable of playing as a right winger or as a

second striker Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

, and was considered a fast and elegant forward, despite his lack of particularly notable physical attributes. He was also an accurate

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...

taker.

Managerial career

Sesa took his first head coaching job in 2012 as new boss of Swiss Challenge League club FC Wohlen. He was removed from managerial duties in February 2014 due to poor results and replaced with Ciriaco Sforza. In the summer 2016, Sesa became the assistant manager of his former teammate,

René Weiler René Weiler (born 13 September 1973) is a Swiss football coach and former player. Playing career Weiler started his career 1990 with FC Winterthur, the club of his hometown, playing in the Challenge League. In 1992, he moved to FC Aarau who at ...

, at Belgian club R.S.C. Anderlecht. Weiler was fired on 18 September 2017 but Sesa stayed at the club to assist interim manager Nicolás Frutos. However, his contract was terminated in the beginning of the following month. On 31 August 2019, Sesa was appointed assistant manager of Weiler once again, this time at Egyptian club Al Ahly SC. On 1 October 2020, Sesa departed Al Ahly following the departure of Weiler. On 21 June 2022, he was announced as the new head coach of

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 Swi ...

in their first season back in the Swiss Challenge League, after achieving promotion in the previous season from the Swiss Promotion League. On 22 August 2022, after only five games with Bellinzona, he resigned from his post.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sesa, David 1973 births Living people Swiss men's footballers Swiss expatriate footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Italy Servette FC players FC Aarau players FC Baden players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players U.S. Lecce players S.S.C. Napoli players Expatriate footballers in Italy UEFA Euro 1996 players FC Zürich players Switzerland international footballers S.P.A.L. players Swiss Super League players Rovigo Calcio players Swiss-Italian people Swiss people of Italian descent Swiss football managers FC Wohlen managers Association football midfielders Footballers from Zürich AC Bellinzona managers