Fabio Daprelà (; born 19 February 1991) is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

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 plays as a defender. He is a former Switzerland U21 international.

Club career

Early career

Daprelà was eight when he was spotted by

SC Young Fellows Juventus Sportclub Young Fellows Juventus is a professional Swiss Association football, football club based in Zürich. It was founded in 1992 following a Mergers and acquisitions, merger between Young Fellows Zürich (established in 1903) and Società C ...

and signed for them. After three years at SC Young Fellows Juventus, Daprelà joined

Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

at the age of 12. Aged 16, Daprelà was promoted to first team squad and made his Grasshoppers debut on 2 February 2008, playing 90 minutes in place of the suspended

Yassin Mikari Yassin Mikari (; born 9 January 1983) is a Tunisian professional footballer. Club career Mikari re-joined Grasshopper Club Zürich on 21 January 2007 and left for French club Sochaux in the Ligue 1 on 2 January 2009. He returned to Switzerland ...

. In the

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 ...

, Daprelà scored his first goal for Grasshopper in a 2–2 draw 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 currently play in 3. Liga, the seventh tier of Swiss football. History Between 1927 ...

on 26 October 2008.

West Ham United

In July 2009, Daprelà signed for

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

from Grasshoppers for a nominal fee joining fellow Swiss international,

Valon Behrami Valon Behrami (born 19 April 1985) is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Despite starting his professional football career in Switzerland with FC Lugano, Behrami played mostly in Italy, though also played for two ...

who had been signed from

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

in the summer of 2008. Daprelà signed a five-year deal after moving from the Zurich club and arrived as cover for first choice

Hérita Ilunga Nkongolo Hérita Ilunga (born 25 February 1982) is a Congolese former footballer who played as a left-back. At club level, he represented Espanyol B, Saint-Étienne, Toulouse, West Ham United, Doncaster Rovers, Rennes, Carquefou, and US Creteil ...

. Replacing the injured Ilunga, Daprelà made his first-team debut for West Ham on 3 January 2010 in their 2–1 home defeat to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

third round. The highly rated Switzerland Under-19 left-back had worn the armband for Alex Dyer's reserves team. On 13 March 2010 Daprelà made his

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

debut in a 4–1 away defeat to Chelsea. Daprelà made eight appearances in all competitions for West Ham United, leaving at the end of the 2009–10 season. Following the sacking of manager

Gianfranco Zola Gianfranco Zola (; born 5 July 1966) is an Italian football executive, Manager (association football), manager, and former Association football, footballer who played predominantly as a Forward (association football), forward. He is currently v ...

's, who signed him,

's new manager

Avram Grant Avraham "Avram" Grant (; né Granat; born ) is an Israeli professional football manager who currently manages the Zambia national football team. He has spent the majority of his career coaching and managing in Israel, winning a number of nati ...

rarely used Daprelà in the first team.

Brescia

On 30 August 2010 Daprelà joined

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

for an undisclosed fee signing a five-year contract and joining up with Swiss teammate

Gaetano Berardi Gaetano Michel Berardi (born 21 August 1988) is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a right-back, left-back or centre-back. He also played one match for the Switzerland national team. Club career Brescia Born in Sorengo, Berard ...

. On 26 September 2011, Daprelà made his debut for Brescia in a 2–1 loss against A.S. Bari. In his first season at Brescia, Daprelà made ten appearances (coming on as substitute five times) but his team played poorly and were relegated to Serie B after just one season in Serie A. Following Brescia's relegation Daprelà stayed, while some of the club's key players left. His first

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

at Brescia was mixed for Daprelà. The next

at Brescia was key for Daprelà as he established himself in the first team at full back as the club placed 8th place.

Palermo

On 29 July 2013 he moved to

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

, signing a three-year contract (with an option for another year). In the 2013–14 season, Daprelà was part of the Palermo side winning the

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as 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 b ...

title, thereby earning promotion back to the

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

Carpi

On 6 January 2016

Carpi Carpi may refer to: Places * Carpi, Emilia-Romagna, a large town in the province of Modena, central Italy ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Carpi * Carpi (Africa), a city and former diocese of Roman Africa, now a Roman Catholic titular see People ...

have announced the signing of Daprela after he left Palermo by mutual consent. He is tied to the ''Biancorossi'' until 30 June 2016 and given the number 36 shirt.

Zürich

On 7 June 2023, Daprelà signed a two-season contract with

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 9 September 2024, his contract with Zürich was terminated by mutual consent.

International career

A regular in the U-17's, Daprelà played every minute of Switzerland's campaign at the 2008 European Championships, starting each match at left back. After the tournament, he was promoted to the U-19's and played in every game at the 2009 European Championships despite not taking part in qualification. Participated at the

2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship The 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 18th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. The final tournament was hosted by Denmark between 11 and 25 June 2011. The Danish bid was chosen by UEFA's Executive Committee on 10 De ...

, finishing second in the competition, losing the final against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. He was chosen by

Pierluigi Tami Pierluigi Tami (born 12 September 1961) is the current director of the Switzerland men's national teams. A former football manager and defender, he holds Swiss and Italian citizenship. Career He was in charge of the Switzerland national unde ...

for the

London 2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

national squad.

Honours

Club

Palermo *

: 2013–14 Lugano *

: 2021–22

International

; Swiss Olympic team *Represented Switzerland at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

; Switzerland Under-21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

: Runner Up

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Daprela, Fabio 1991 births Living people Swiss men's footballers Swiss people of Italian descent Swiss expatriate sportspeople in England Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Italy Men's association football defenders West Ham United F.C. players SC Young Fellows Juventus players Grasshopper Club Zurich players Brescia Calcio players Palermo FC players AC Carpi players SSC Bari players FC Lugano players FC Zürich players Swiss Super League players Premier League players Serie A players Serie B players Swiss expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Footballers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Switzerland Switzerland men's youth international footballers Switzerland men's under-21 international footballers Footballers from Zurich 21st-century Swiss sportsmen