Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in the city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen. It is the oldest football club in

continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

after

Kjøbenhavns Boldklub Kjøbenhavns Boldklub (known simply as KB) was a Danish professional multi-sports club based in Copenhagen. The club was founded on 26 April 1876 on the grassy fields in outer Copenhagen which later became Fælledparken. Tennis has been played s ...

. The team competes 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 ...

, the top tier of Swiss football.

History

Founded on 19 April 1879, FC St. Gallen is the oldest club still in existence in Swiss football. However, the team has had relatively little success in comparison to other clubs. Despite the fact that St. Gallen won the Swiss championship twice in the 1903–04 and 1999–2000 seasons, the team has mostly been a mid-table side. St. Gallen were relegated to the second-tier Challenge League twice, at the end of the 2007–08 and the 2010–11 seasons. Since their promotion back to the Swiss Super League, they have remained in the top division for the past twelve years, establishing themselves again as a midtable club. In the 2019–20 season, the club finished as runners-up. Despite being based in a relatively small city, St. Gallen are known for their excellent support at both home and away games. In 2016, FC St. Gallen, became a member of the exclusive Club of Pioneers, as the oldest football club of Switzerland.

Stadium

FC St. Gallen play their home games at the Kybunpark. The

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

has a capacity of 19,694 and it is on the west side of town. The stadium replaced the former

Espenmoos Espenmoos Stadium, is a football stadium in St. Gallen, 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, German ...

in the east.

Honours

Domestic

League

**Winners: 1903–04, 1999–2000 **Runners-up: 2019–20 *

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League (known as the Dieci Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the wi ...

**Winners: 1970–71, 2008–09, 2011–12 **Runners-up: 1967–68

Cup

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 ...

**Winners: 1968–69 **Runners-up: 1944–45, 1976–77, 1997–98, 2020–21, 2021–22 *

Swiss League Cup The Swiss League Cup was a football tournament which took place as a summer pre-season tournament in 1972 and 1973, and during the Swiss football season from 1974–75 to 1981–82. The tournament was a knockout competition contested by clubs fro ...

**Winners: 1977–78 **Runners-up: 1981–82

Others

*Anglo Cup **Runners-up: 1910

European record

Overall record

:''Accurate as of 1 January 2025'' Legend: GF = Goals For. GA = Goals Against. GD = Goal Difference.

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Retired numbers

Club officials

Coaches

* Jack Reynolds (1912–14) *

William Townley William James Townley (14 February 1866 – 30 May 1950) was an English football player and coach. He scored the first hat-trick in the history of the FA Cup final, and he is considered an important pioneer of the game in Germany, leading Kar ...

(1920) * Leopold Grundwald (1922) *

(1923–25) * Jimmy Townley (1945–49) * Robert Kelly (1949–51) * Fritz Kerr (1952–54) *

Otto Pfister Otto Martin Pfister (born 24 November 1937) is a German former football manager and one of Germany's most successful coaching exports, voted Africa's ''Manager of the Year'' in 1992. He is formerly the manager of the Afghanistan national team. ...

(1963–66) *

Virgil Popescu Virgil Popescu (1 December 1916 – 15 February 1989) was a Romanian footballer and later coach. In Yugoslavia, he was known as Stanislav Popesku. Career He was born in 1916 during the First World War, in the Transylvanian town of Zlatna,

(1966–67) *

René Brodmann René Brodmann (25 October 1933 – August 2000) was a Swiss football defender who played for Switzerland in the 1966 FIFA World Cup. He also played for Grasshopper Club Zürich, FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Z ...

(1967–68) *

Albert Sing Albert Sing (7 April 1917 – 31 August 2008) was a German football player and manager. A midfielder, he played for 1. FC Eislingen, Stuttgarter Kickers, VfR Mannheim and TSG Ulm 1846 and capped twice for Germany Germany, officially th ...

(1968–70) *

Željko Perušić Željko Perušić (23 March 1937 – 28 September 2017) was a Croatian footballer. He was part of the Yugoslav squad that won gold at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Club career During his club career he played for NK Dinamo Zagreb, TSV 1860 Mün ...

(1970–74) * Helmuth Johannsen (1 July 1981 – 30 June 1985) * Werner Olk (1985–86) * Uwe Klimaschefski (1 July 1986 – 1 March 1987) * Kurt Jara (1 July 1988 – 1 October 1991) *

Uwe Rapolder Uwe Rapolder (born 29 May 1958) is a German retired football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (wor ...

(1 July 1993 – 10 April 1996) *

Werner Zünd Werner Zünd (born 23 January 1948) is a Swiss football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), ...

''(interim)'' (11 April 1996 – 25 April 1996) * Roger Hegi (26 April 1996 – 31 December 1998) * Marcel Koller (1 Jan 1999 – 31 December 2001) * Gérard Castella (20 Feb 2002 – 15 September 2002) * Thomas Staub ''(interim)'' (20 Sep 2002 – 9 December 2002) * Heinz Peischl (1 March 2003 – 8 April 2005) *

''(interim)'' (29 April 2004 – 30 May 2005) * René Weiler ''(interim)'' (13 April 2005 – 29 April 2005) *

Ralf Loose Ralf Loose (; born 5 January 1963) is a German football coach and former player who last managed Swiss club Winterthur. He is most noted for his stint with the Liechtenstein national football team. Playing career Loose played as a sweeper betwee ...

(1 July 2005 – 10 April 2006) *

''(interim)'' (10 April 2006 – 12 April 2006) * Rolf Fringer (12 April 2006 – 8 October 2007) * Krassimir Balakov (29 Oct 2007 – 30 June 2008) *

Uli Forte Ulrich Massimo Forte (born 30 April 1974) is a Swiss football coach and former player from Switzerland. He currently manages FC Winterthur in the Swiss Super League. Personal life Forte was born in Zürich to a family originally from Salerno, I ...

(1 July 2008 – 1 March 2011) * Giorgio Contini /

Roger Zürcher Roger is a masculine given name, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic languages">Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") ...

''(interim)'' (1 March 2011 – 7 March 2011) * Jeff Saibene (7 March 2011 –2015) * Josef Zinnbauer (16 September 2015 – 4 May 2017) * Giorgio Contini (4 May 2017 – 1 April 2018) * Peter Zeidler (18 June 2018–)

Former players

* Paul Friberg

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:FC Saint Gallen Saint Gallen Saint Gallen 1879 establishments in Switzerland