Cedric Jan Itten (born 27 December 1996) is a Swiss 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 ...

who plays as a

centre forward 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 ...

for Swiss club Young Boys and the Switzerland national team.

Club career

Youth football

Itten started his youth football with

FC Black Stars Basel FC Black Stars Basel is a football club from Basel, Switzerland. Since the season 2012/2013 they play in Group 2 of the 1. Liga Classic 1. Liga Classic (1st League Classic in English) is the fourth tier of the Swiss football league system. Th ...

in 2003, before moving to

BSC Old Boys Basler Sportclub Old Boys, commonly known as BSC Old Boys, Old Boys Basel or simply Old Boys or when written just OB, is a Swiss sports club based in Basel. The club is mainly known for its football but it also has track, swimming and tennis se ...

a year later. In February 2007 he moved on to the youth department of

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS) ...

and played in their U-18 team and their U-21 team. Itten was a part of FC Basel's

2013–14 UEFA Youth League The 2013–14 UEFA Youth League was the first season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA. It was contested by the under-19 youth teams of the 32 clubs qualified for the group stage of the 2013–1 ...

campaign.

Basel

Itten signed a three-year junior professional contract on 21 August 2015 and joined Basel's first team for their 2015–16 season under head coach

Urs Fischer Urs Fischer (born 2 May 1973) is a Swiss-born contemporary visual artist living in New York City. Fischer’s practice includes sculpture, installation and photography. Education and early career Born to two doctors as the second of two children ...

. After playing in two test games, Itten played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park on 21 February 2016 as Basel won 5–1 against

Vaduz Vaduz ( or , High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' Hrsg. ...

. Itten played the assist as

Birkir Bjarnason Birkir Bjarnason (born 27 May 1988) is an Icelandic professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Süper Lig club Adana Demirspor and the Iceland national football team, where he is their all-time leader in appearances. Club ca ...

scored the last goal of the game. He scored his first league goal for his club on 13 February in the away game in the

Cornaredo Cornaredo ( Milanese: ) is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Milan in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northwest of Milan. Cornaredo borders the following municipalities: Rho, Pregnana Milanese, Settimo Milane ...

as Basel won 4–1 against

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

. It was the team's fourth goal, scored just before half time. With the team Itten won the

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 seaso ...

championship at the end of the 2015–16 Super League season. For the club it was the seventh title in a row and their 19th championship title in total.

Luzern (loan)

On 18 June 2016, Basel announced that they were loaning out Itten to

FC Luzern Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (german: Luzern). It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league ...

, until the end of the 2016–17 Swiss Super League season, so that he could gain more first team playing experience. Itten had a successful season scoring three goals in 28 appearances. Then, on 23 June 2017 Basel announced that they were prolonging their contract with Itten until 30 June 2020 and were continuing the loan Itten to Luzern for another period, until the end of the 2017–18 season.

Return to Basel

Due to Basel's bad start to their 2017–18 season, due strikers transferring out and due to injuries of their replacements, on 13 September 2017 Basel announced that they had recalled striker Itten back from his loan. His first goal following his return was the winning goal for the team in the Stadio Comunale (Chiasso) during the 2017–18 Swiss Cup match on 17 September. It was the winning goal as Basel won 1–0 against

FC Chiasso FC Chiasso is a Swiss football club based in Chiasso. It was founded in 1905. Chiasso also played in the Italian first league between 1914 and 1923. The team's most glorious period was between 1948 and 1961, when the team was promoted to the ...

. Until the winter break Itten had 10 domestic league appearances, scoring two goals. In January 2018 Itten was loaned to

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

, but never returned to Basel. During his period with the club, Itten played a total of 29 games for Basel scoring a total of five goals. 21 of these games were in the

, three in the

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 ...

, two in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and three were friendly games. He scored three goals in the domestic league, one in the cup and the other was scored during the test games.

St. Gallen

On 17 January 2018, Basel announced that Itten would be loaned out to

until the end of the season, with an option to buy. On 29 June 2018 it was announced that St. Gallen pulled the option and had bought the striker.

Rangers

On 4 August 2020, Itten signed for Scottish club

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

, on a four-year deal and for an undisclosed fee, reported to be £2.7 million. On 9 August 2020, Itten made his debut for Rangers in a

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

match against St Mirren. On 27 September 2020, Itten scored his first two goals for Rangers, coming off the bench to score Rangers' fourth and fifth goals in a 5–1 win against

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lana ...

Fir Park Fir Park Stadium is a football stadium situated in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Premiership club Motherwell and was the temporary home of Gretna for the 2007–08 SPL season. ...

Greuther Fürth (loan)

On 31 August 2021, the last day of the 2021 summer

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer ...

Itten signed for German club Greuther Fürth on a season-long loan. On 12 January 2022, Itten’s loan was cut short as he was recalled by parent club

Young Boys

On 1 June 2022, his transfer to Bernese club

BSC Young Boys BSC Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation ) are a Swiss sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 15 Swiss league championships and six Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss football clubs internationally, reac ...

was announced. He signed a four-year contract with the

club.

International career

On 15 November 2019, Itten made his debut in the Switzerland national team, coming as a substitute in a 1–0 win over

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

and scoring the only goal of the match. Three days later, he scored twice in a 6–1 win over Gibraltar.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Switzerland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Itten goal.''

Honours

FC Basel *

: 2015–16 Rangers *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2021–22 Young Boys *Swiss Super League:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Individual *

Best player of the round:

(Round 10), *

Player of the Month: March 2023 *

Team of the Year: 2019–20,

References

External links

*
Profile at Swiss Football League
{{DEFAULTSORT:Itten, Cedric 1996 births Living people Footballers from Basel Swiss men's footballers Men's association football forwards Switzerland men's international footballers Switzerland men's under-21 international footballers Switzerland men's youth international footballers Swiss Super League players Scottish Professional Football League players Bundesliga players FC Basel players FC Luzern players FC St. Gallen players Rangers F.C. players SpVgg Greuther Fürth players BSC Young Boys players Swiss expatriate men's footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany