Marvin Spielmann’s name suddenly surfaced in the Dutch rumor circuit in the spring of 2018. The Swiss newspaper Blick wrote that both Ajax and Feyenoord had made an offer for the then 22-year-old wing attacker of FC Thun. It is unclear how serious the interest from the Netherlands was, but Spielmann chose at least to make the switch to Young Boys a year later. The man whose career is as erratic as his character will still be in the Johan Cruijff Arena next Thursday – provided he is fit – when Ajax receives the champion of Switzerland in the first leg of the eighth final of the Europa League.
By Rian Rosendaal & Chris Meijer
Feyenoord first became acquainted with Spielmann last season, as far as his name was not yet known at the offices of De Kuip. With just under twenty minutes to play, the attacker determined the final score of the group match in the Europa League between Feyenoord and Young Boys at 1-1. This seriously clouded Feyenoord’s view of European wintering, although Young Boys would eventually end up behind FC Porto and Rangers in the group. The goal in De Kuip was a rare highlight for Spielmann in an otherwise extremely difficult first season in the service of Young Boys.
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Young Boys celebrates Spielmann’s goal in De Kuip during last season’s Europa League game.
The champion of Switzerland paid 1.4 million euros in the summer of 2019 to outdo the foreign competition – including Sampdoria – in the battle for Spielmann. He himself had doubted whether the step from FC Thun to Young Boys might not be too big. “I arrived in Bern with a well-stocked backpack,” said Spielmann later in conversation with the Solothurner Zeitung. His path to the status of one of the most coveted players in the Swiss league has been difficult. At the age of seven, his parents separated: the young Spielmann stayed with his father, while his mother – to whom he owes his Congolese roots – moved to Paris.
Spielmann was not exactly brought up with football. His father plays guitar in a so-called rockabilly band. As a result, Spielmann played guitar and drums in his youth, but nowadays prefers to listen to rap and R&B music before competitions. “My father’s music is certainly not my preference,” said Spielmann in an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In addition to being a gifted musician, he also turned out to be a talented football player. Spielmann went through the youth academy of FC Aarau, grew there into a youth international and at the same time completed a commercial education. Yet things did not always go well for him: Spielmann was once disciplinary suspended as a youth player. “He struggled with rules and authority,” said Sven Christ, head of youth academy at FC Aarau. “But if you handle that properly, a player like that can bring you a lot. You need football players who do crazy things on the field. ”
“Of course that is my reputation, I accept that. I have always been stubborn, I have an unpredictable attitude and I am difficult to read. I don’t want to lose that ”, said Spielmann himself about his character. After a rental period of one and a half years at FC Baden, which was then at the fourth level, Spielmann broke through in the first team of FC Aarau. He would not play for a long time for the club from his native region in the north of Switzerland, because after only six months in the Challenge League (the second level of Swiss football) with six goals and five assists, FC Wil 1900 reported to FC Aarau. . On the basis of Turkish investors, FC Wil wanted to storm the top of Swiss football and with sky-high salaries, talents from all over the country were lured to the second-tier club. The only twenty-year-old Spielmann was presented with a contract with a monthly salary of more than 22,000 euros. He was accused of being a ‘greedy soccer player’. “I made the transition from a relegation to a champion candidate,” explained Spielmann himself. “I was interested in the sporting perspective.”
After a year, however, the Turkish investors had left Wil with the northern sun. Just like the sky-high ambitions, the expensive players from the east of Switzerland also disappeared very quickly. Spielmann was one of them and was picked up by FC Thun, at the time a mid-rider in the Super League. After six months of acclimatization, the highest level was introduced to the erratic wing attacker. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung called the ‘surprise’ his trademark. “It turns up where you don’t expect it,” the newspaper wrote. “Spielmann has become one of the Super League’s most coveted talents. He is less dangerous than Xherdan Shaqiri (Swiss international from Liverpool, ed.) And less powerful than Steven Zuber (Swiss international from Eintracht Frankfurt, ed.), But faster than both of them and has a better shot. It seems as if he has something Brazilian about him. ”
In his first full season with FC Thun, the former international of Young Switzerland made a big impression. After fourteen goals and four assists his name was passed on Blick linked to Ajax, Feyenoord, Young Boys and Sampdoria. Spielmann decided to stay with FC Thun for another year, provided twelve goals and eight assists, reached the cup final and then opted for a domestic switch to Young Boys. It is a step he will look back on with mixed feelings for the time being. Partly due to ankle, muscle and eye injuries, he had to miss many competitions in his first year and a half in Bern. Mentally, this had repercussions on Spielmann, who was brought in with the necessary expectations. “I always give my all, in competitions and training. But mentally I have never been the strongest ”, Spielmann said.
‘In the past Ajax would be a size too big, that is absolutely not the case now’
Read here the preview of Voetbalzone with Blick journalist Alain Kunz on the diptych between Ajax and Young Boys.
“But he is doing particularly well at the moment,” said Alain Kunz, journalist for the Swiss newspaper Blick, in conversation with Football zone. “He used to run into some problems in that area, but it is precisely in recent years that he has done an awful lot of work and made progress. There have been some injuries over the years, but mentally there are now no strange things to report. So there is nothing wrong with him at the moment, absolutely not. ” Despite his injuries, Spielmann has proven his worth for Young Boys in the past year and a half. In August, he gave the Bern club the Swiss Cup with the winning goal in the 89th minute of the final against FC Basel.
As a substitute, he also proved his worth in the return of the sixteenth final of the Europa League against Bayer Leverkusen (0-2 victory) with an assist. Yet it is still the question whether Spielmann is present against Ajax. He was not part of the match selection for the away match against FC Basel (1-1). A week later, however, Spielmann had a starting place for the first time this season in the home game with FC Vaduz (1-1), although trainer Gerardo Seoane spared almost all his first choices in the run-up to the first leg of the eighth final of the Europa League. against Ajax. His goal in the cup final and the assist against Bayer Leverkusen, however, provided Spielmann as a substitute. In that respect Ajax has been warned.