Nicolas Hunziker (born 23 February 1996) is a retired Swiss

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. Hunziker grew up Büsserach and because there is no football club in the small village he played his early football with local amateur club FC Breitenbach in the neighbouring village.

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

scouted him in 2007 and after a trainings week he joined Basel's youth section in 2008. Hunziker advanced through the ranks regularly and was soon called up to the represent Switzerland at youth level. For the season 2014–15 he advanced to Basel's U-21 team, who played in the

Promotion League The Promotion League, named the Hoval Promotion League for sponsorship reasons, is the third tier of the Swiss football league system. Eighteen clubs compete in the league, playing each other twice over course of the season. The champions are prom ...

, the third tier of Swiss football and played for them regularly. After having played in two test games Hunziker played his debut for the first team 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 ...

game on 15 August 2015 as Basel won 4–0 against

FC Meyrin Meyrin Football Club is a football team based in Meyrin in 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, Ge ...

. On 29 February 2016 Hunziker extended his professional contract with the club and he joined Basel's first team for the remainder of their 2015–16 season under head coach Urs Fischer. Hunziker played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game on 13 April as Basel won 4–1 against

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

coming in as substitute. Hunziker had had three short appearances with the first team that season and won the 2015–16 Super League championship. However, then he was loaned to Grasshopper Club for the following season and here he was able to gain match practice in fourteen league games, scoring one goal. After his loan period he did not return to Basel but he moved on. During his short period with their first team, Hunziker played a total of 12 games for Basel without scoring a goal. Three of these games were 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 ...

, one in the Swiss Cup and eight were friendly games. On 1 June 2017, Basel announced that Hunziker had signed a three-year contract for

Thun Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...

. Hunziker did not play regularly, mainly due to injuries. However one match is notable for the player, on 6 May 2018 he was substituted in during the match against Grasshopper Club. Hunziker scored two goals within a matter of minutes to turn the game into a 2–1 victory after being a goal down as he came on. On 11 September 2019 FC Thun announced, the contract with Hunziker, which would have been valid until the following summer, was terminated early. Due to various long-term injuries, the center forward had never fully been able to demonstrate his talent. He later joined

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

to keep fit, but could not advance to their first team. On 18 August 2020 the then 24-year old Hunziker announced his retirement from professional football due to his constant injuries.Mit nur 24 Jahren: Nicolas Hunziker vom FC Baden beendet seine Karriere
aargauerzeitung.ch, 18 August 2020 Hunziker has completed various junior international matches from the U-15 to the Swiss U-21 team. His last match for the U-21 was on 5 September 2017.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunziker, Nicolas 1996 births Living people Men's association football forwards Swiss men's footballers Switzerland men's youth international footballers Switzerland men's under-21 international footballers Swiss Super League players FC Basel players Grasshopper Club Zurich players FC Thun players FC Baden players 21st-century Swiss sportsmen