Daniel Gygax (born 28 August 1981) 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 winger or

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. He earned 35 caps for the Swiss national team, playing at two European Championships and the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

. At club level, Gygax played mostly for Swiss clubs but has also played in France for

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

and

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

, before moving to Germany to play for 1. FC Nürnberg.

Club career

Gygax was born in

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 ...

. On 7 July 2008, Gygax moved to 1. FC Nürnberg in Germany. He left the team on 30 June 2010 to join

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

. Gygax along with another signing

Hakan Yakin Hakan Yakin (; born 22 February 1977) is a Swiss professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the head coach of Swiss Challenge League side FC Schaffhausen. He spent the majority of his ...

has helped their team to a surprise lead 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 ...

with half of the season gone. He scored seven goals during the season. Gygax retired at the end of the 2016–17 season, aged 35.

International career

Gygax made his debut for the Swiss national team on 31 March 2004, replacing

after 60 minutes of a 1–0 friendly loss to

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Heraklion Heraklion or Herakleion ( ; , , ), sometimes Iraklion, is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in G ...

. He scored his first goal on his fourth cap, the only goal in a friendly win over

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

on 6 June. At

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

, he played in Switzerland's last two group games, and he also played the first two group games at the

. His last of 35 internationals was on 11 June 2008, as a late substitute in a group game against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

which the Swiss co-hosted.

Career statistics

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Hardturm The Hardturm was a football stadium located in Zürich's Kreis 5. Opened in 1929, it was the home of the Grasshopper Club Zürich until it closed in 2007. It was a host stadium for the 1954 FIFA World Cup. The land for the stadium was bought by ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

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Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium () is a multi-use stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was named after Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It is currently used mostly for football matches and serves as the home stadium of former ho ...

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

, , , , 1–0 , , 2–1 , , Friendly , - , 3. , , 7 September 2005 , ,

GSP Stadium The GSP Stadium () is a association football, football stadium in Strovolos, Nicosia District, Cyprus. Although small by international standards, it is the largest stadium in Cyprus, with a capacity of 22,859 and was opened in 1999. It serves as ...

Strovolos Strovolos (; ; ) is a municipality in the Nicosia district, of Cyprus. It is a part of the Nicosia urban area. With a population of 71,123, it is the second most populated municipality in Cyprus, after Limassol, and the most populated municipalit ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

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2006 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America ...

, - , 4. , , 1 March 2006 , ,

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland , , , , 2–0 , , 3–1 , , Friendly , - , 5. , , 31 May 2006 , ,

Stade de Genève Stade de Genève (Stadium of Geneva), also called Stade de la Praille, is a stadium in Lancy, Canton of Geneva. It has a capacity of 30,084. Overview The stadium was completed in 2003 by Implenia, Zschokke Construction S.A. after nearly three y ...

Lancy Lancy is a municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. History Lancy is first mentioned in 1097 as ''Lanciaco' Geography Lancy has an area, , of . Of this area, or 5.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 6.5% is forested. ...

, Switzerland , , , , 1–1 , , 1–1 , , Friendly

Honours

FC Zürich *

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 ...

: 2004–05

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gygax, Daniel 1981 births Living people Swiss-German people Swiss men's footballers Footballers from Zurich Men's association football wingers Men's association football midfielders Switzerland men's international footballers Switzerland men's under-21 international footballers UEFA Euro 2004 players 2006 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2008 players Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players Ligue 1 players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players FC Baden players FC Zürich players FC Winterthur players FC Aarau players Lille OSC players FC Metz players 1. FC Nürnberg players Swiss expatriate men's footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in France Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany 21st-century Swiss sportsmen