Daniel Unal (born 18 January 1990, in

Locarno , neighboring_municipalities= Ascona, Avegno, Cadenazzo, Cugnasco, Gerra (Verzasca), Gambarogno, Gordola, Lavertezzo, Losone, Minusio, Muralto, Orselina, Tegna, Tenero-Contra , twintowns =* Gagra, Georgia * Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic ...

) is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

former

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 le ...

Aramean The Arameans ( oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; syc, ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, Ārāmāyē) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean h ...

origin who played as 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 ...

Club career

Unal played his youth football with

FC Locarno FC Locarno is a Swiss football club based in Locarno in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ...

and in 2005 he moved to

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 2006 he advanced to their first team, who at that time played in the Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football. With them he made seventeen appearances, scoring one goal, in his first and only season with the team. He was loaned to the U21-Team of

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

for the 2007/08 season and was set to sign on a permanent contract, as

Bellinzona Bellinzona ( , , Ticinese ; french: Bellinzone ; german: Bellenz ; rm, Blizuna )is a municipality, a historic Swiss town, and the capital of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The town is famous for its three castles (Castelgrande, Montebell ...

and

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

had a deal for players exchanges, but, instead he signed for

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

. On 8 July 2008 Unal signed a two year contract with an option for a third year. In his first season with Basel, he played exclusively in the FC Basel U-21 team, having 20 appearances and scoring three goals. However he played in five test matches in the first few months of 2009, coming on each time as substitute. Unal joined Basel's first team in advance of their 2009–10 season under new head coach

Thorsten Fink Thorsten Fink (born 29 October 1967) is a German football coach and a former footballer, currently works as manager of Riga FC. Career Fink began his career with Borussia Dortmund's reserve squad before moving to SG Wattenscheid 09, where he hel ...

. After playing in seven further test games Unal played his debut with the team on 17 September 2009 in the

2009–10 UEFA Europa League group stage The 2009–10 UEFA Europa League group stage matches took place between 17 September and 17 December 2009. The group stage featured the 38 winners of the play-off round and the 10 losing sides of the Champions League play-off round. Following t ...

, also coming on as substitute, as Basel won 2–0 against

. Three days later, he played his

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 L ...

debut for the club in the away game on 20 September as Basel won 3–0 against

SC Cham SC Cham 1910 is a Swiss football team which plays in the third tier of the Swiss football pyramid. They are based in Cham and were founded in 1910. History The club was founded on 14 June 1910 and was the first football club in Canton Zug. ...

. He played the full 90 minutes. He played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game in the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

on 23 September as Basel won 4–0 against

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

, again coming on as substitute. At the end of the 2009–10 season he won the

Double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

with his club. They won the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

Championship title with 3 points advantage over second placed Young Boys. The team won the

, winning the final 6–0 against

Lausanne-Sport FC Lausanne–Sport (also referred to as LS) is a Swiss football club based in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud. Founded in 1896, Lausanne Sport played in the Swiss Super League in their most recent 2021-22 season, the highest tier of football i ...

. Unal had appeared in three of the cup games. Again this season he played mainly in the Basel U-21 team. In the following season Unal played in two cup and four league matches, again playing mainly with the U-21 team. With Basel, Unal won his second Swiss Championship at the end of the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season, topping the table just one point clear of rivals

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

. Basel and Unal agreed not to extent their contract. During the time with the club's first team, Unal played a total of 51 games for Basel scoring seven goals. Six of these games were in 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 season ...

, five in the

, one in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

and 39 were friendly games. He scored all seven goals during the test games. During his time with Basel, Unal attracted the interests of

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedese Bo ...

, but it never came to a deal. During summer 2011 he returned home and signed a two year team with his club of origin

. In his first season he had diverse appearances, but he was handicapped through injuries. In summer 2013 he was again without club and he retired from professional football.

International

Unal played two years for the Switzerland U-19 team. With the team he played in the

2008 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification UEFA U-19 Championship 2008 (qualifying round) was the first round of qualifications for the final tournament of 2008 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. 52 teams are split into 13 groups of 4 and teams in each group play each other once. The top t ...

. In the game on 10 October 2007 he scored two goals as the Swiss won 6–1 against Kazakhstan U-19. He also played in the

2009 UEFA European Under-19 Championship elite qualification The Elite Round of the 2009 UEFA European Under-19 Championship is the second round of qualification. The winners of each group join hosts Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-la ...

with the team. In the match on 7 June 2009 he scored a goal as the Swiss won 6–1 against Republic of Ireland U-19. He was also a Switzerland under-20s international player.

Honours

Basel *

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

References

Sources

* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage

External links

Profile at FC Basel

Profile at Swiss Football League Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unal, Daniel 1990 births Living people Assyrian sportspeople Swiss men's footballers Switzerland youth international footballers AC Bellinzona players A.S. Roma players FC Basel players FC Locarno players Swiss Super League players Swiss expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Association football midfielders People from Locarno Assyrian footballers Sportspeople from Ticino