Raphaël Wicky (born 26 April 1977) 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), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and a former defender. He was most recently the manager of

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 ...

club Young Boys, whom he led to a domestic double. He was a defensive midfielder who could also play in defence and was known for his combative style. His playing career was spent mostly in the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

with Werder Bremen and

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, as well as a brief spell in Spain's

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

with

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

. He earned 75 caps for Switzerland between 1996 and 2008, 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 ...

. As a manager, he won the Swiss Super League and

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 ...

double with

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

in 2017, and also spent two years in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

with the Chicago Fire. He returned to Switzerland in 2022 with Young Boys and won his second Swiss Super League title in 2023.

Club career

Born in Leuggern in the canton of

Aargau Aargau ( ; ), more formally the Canton of Aargau (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capital is Aarau. Aargau is one of the most nort ...

, Wicky started his career with Sion, and went on to represent Werder Bremen. n 25 January 2001, he joined

, then in the

. After only eleven games in Spain, he returned to the

on 6 December 2001, signing for

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

until the end of the season with the option to extend until June 2005. He returned to Sion on a three-year contract on 23 August 2007, after losing first-choice status with Hamburg under manager

Huub Stevens Hubertus Jozef Margaretha "Huub" Stevens (; born 29 November 1953) is a Dutch former professional Manager (association football), football manager and player. Playing career Stevens was born in Sittard. While active, he played for Fortuna Sittar ...

following a period of injury. Wicky signed on a free transfer with

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

–based

side

Chivas USA Chivas USA (pronounced ''CHEE-vahs'') was an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The club competed in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conf ...

in February 2008. Wicky made his debut as a substitute in Chivas' season opener against

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

on 30 March. His season was cut short due to ankle injury, making just five appearances in his first MLS season. He underwent surgery to repair the injury in July 2008 and was placed on the team's season-ending injury list on 15 September. On 26 January 2009, Chivas USA announced that they had re-signed Wicky to a one-year deal. Five weeks later, on 3 March, he announced his retirement from professional football, citing "personal reasons."

International career

Internationally, Wicky was part of the Swiss national teams at Euro 96 and Euro 2004 as well as at the 2006 World Cup. In 75 appearances, he scored one goal, to open a 3–1 win away to the Faroe Islands in qualification for the last of those tournaments on 4 June 2005.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Switzerland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Wicky goal.''

Managerial career

Upon retiring as a player, Wicky coached the youth teams of

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. ...

in 2009 and a year later Servette. In 2013, he moved into the youth ranks of

. He became first-team manager on 21 April 2017, replacing Urs Fischer after a boardroom change. Days later, the team wrapped up an eighth consecutive league title, and on 25 May won the

with a 3–0 victory over Sion at the

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 ...

. On 26 July 2018, having finished as runner-up in the domestic league and having been eliminated in the semifinal of the cup as well as having started the new season poorly, with elimination by

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

in the 2nd qualifying round of the Champions League, he was dismissed. On 8 March 2019, Wicky was named the head coach of the United States Under-17 Men's National Team. On 27 December 2019, he was named the head coach of

side Chicago Fire. He missed the MLS Cup playoffs by one point in 2020, and was dismissed on 30 September 2021. On 2 June 2022, his return to the

as the new head coach of Young Boys was announced. His contract was terminated by Young Boys on 4 March 2024. This came following a string of poor results, including elimination from the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

and from the

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 ...

side Sion, as well as seeing their lead at the top of the

decline to just one point ahead of Servette.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Sion * Swiss Championship: 1996–97 *

: 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97 Werder Bremen *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

: 1998–99; runner-up 1999–2000 * DFL-Ligapokal runner-up:

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

Hamburger SV * DFL-Ligapokal:

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

* UEFA Intertoto Cup:

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Manager

Young Boys *

: 2022–23 *

: 2022–23

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wicky, Raphael 1977 births Living people Swiss-German people People from Zurzach District Men's association football midfielders Men's association football defenders Swiss men's footballers Switzerland men's international footballers FC Sion players SV Werder Bremen players Atlético Madrid footballers Hamburger SV players Chivas USA players Swiss Super League players Segunda División players Bundesliga players Major League Soccer players UEFA Euro 1996 players UEFA Euro 2004 players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Spain Swiss expatriate sportspeople in the United States Swiss football managers FC Basel managers Chicago Fire FC head coaches Major League Soccer head coaches Swiss expatriate football managers Expatriate soccer coaches in the United States Footballers from Aargau BSC Young Boys managers