Neuchâtel Xamax FCS

Neuchâtel Xamax Football Club Serrières (pronounced [nøʃɑtɛl ksamaks]) is a Swiss football club based in Neuchâtel. It was created in 1970 through a merger between FC Cantonal, founded in 1906 and Swiss champions of 1916, and FC Xamax founded in 1912. The name Xamax comes from legendary Swiss international player 'Xam' Max Abegglen, one of the founding members.^[1] Xamax Neuchâtel FCS obtained its current name after a merger with FC Serrières, another side from Neuchâtel, in May 2013.^[2]

Neuchâtel Xamax

Full name	Neuchâtel Xamax Football Club Serrières
Nickname(s)	Xamax
Founded	1906; 119 years ago (1906)
Ground	Stade de la Maladière, Neuchâtel
Capacity	12,000
Owner	Jean-François Collet
Manager	Anthony Braizat
League	Swiss Challenge League
2024–25	Swiss Challenge League, 8th of 10
Website	www.xamax.ch
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Chart of the table positions of Neuchâtel Xamax FCS and its previous incarnations in the Swiss football league system

Stade de la Maladière

Gilbert Gress, championship winning coach of the 1980s.

History

In 1906 the club was founded as Fc Cantonal and in 1970 merged with FC Xamax to create the current club.

They have been champions of Switzerland on three occasions, in 1916 and in successive years in 1987 and 1988.^[3] The club has also made it to five Swiss Cup finals, the most recent in 2011, but have failed to win any of them.^[3]

After many financial crises, the club declared bankruptcy on 26 January 2012 and was consequently excluded from Swiss Super League.^[4] The club was reformed, but had to restart in the Swiss amateur leagues, entering the 2. Liga Interregional, the fifth tier of the Swiss football league system, for the 2012–13 season.^[5] The club finished first in 2013 and was promoted to the 1. Liga Classic for 2013–14. Once again, Xamax finished first, winning the play-off to secure a second successive promotion. Xamax won 1. Liga Promotion, the third tier of Swiss league system was and promoted to the Challenge League after having a third successive promotion in 2014–15 season.^[3]

The club finally won promotion back to the Swiss Super League in 2018, marking the end of a six-year absence from the top flight of Swiss football. At the end of the 2019–20 Swiss Super League season, the club was relegated back to the second division after finishing bottom of the table.^[6]

Stadium

The club plays its home matches at the Stade de la Maladière, which began construction in 2004 and was opened in 2007. It has a capacity of 12,500 spectators.^[7]

Current squad

As of 9 July 2025^[8]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  COD Anthony Mossi 2 DF  CIV Ismaël Sidibé 3 DF  SUI Jonathan Fontana 4 MF  KOS Eris Abedini 5 DF  KOS Lavdrim Hajrulahu 6 MF  SUI Fabio Saiz 7 DF  SUI Mickaël Facchinetti 8 MF  SUI Malik Deme (on loan from Young Boys) 9 FW  KOS Shkelqim Demhasaj 10 FW  FRA Hussayn Touati 11 MF  FRA Salim Ben Seghir 15 DF  SUI Yoan Epitaux 16 DF  SUI Léo Seydoux

No. Pos. Nation Player 17 MF  FRA Romain Bayard 19 DF  POR Euclides Cabral 20 FW  CIV Koro Koné 22 FW  NGA Paschal Durugbor 27 GK  SUI Edin Omeragić 31 MF  SUI Francesco Lentini 35 MF  SUI Altin Azemi 36 DF  SUI Shiloh Reinhard 38 DF  CIV Brillani Soro 77 MF  SUI Noah Streit 88 MF  SUI Musa Araz — DF  NED Léon Bergsma

Notable players

Cameroon

• Freddy Mveng

Central African Republic

• Louis Mafouta

Egypt

• Hossam Hassan

Ivory Coast

• Eric Tia

Nigeria

• Brown Ideye
• Kalu Uche

Senegal

• Papa Bouba Diop

Sierra Leone

• Umaru Bangura

Philippines

• Michael Kempter

Saudi Arabia

• Hussein Abdulghani

Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Mustafa Sejmenović
• Ensar Arifović

Bulgaria

• Trifon Ivanov

Hungary

• Lajos Détári

West Germany

• Uli Stielike

Ireland

• Don Givens

Liechtenstein

• Noah Frick

Spain

• Víctor Sánchez

Switzerland

• Johan Djourou
• Lucien Favre
• Mario Gavranović
• Haris Seferovic

Netherlands

• Rene van der Gijp

Honours

Leagues

• Swiss Super League
  • Winner (3): 1915-16, 1986–87, 1987–88
• Swiss Challenge League
  • Winner (3): 1972–73, 2006–07, 2017–18
• Swiss Promotion League
  • Winner: 2014–15
• 1. Liga Classic
  • Winner: 2013–14
• 2. Liga Interregional
  • Winner: 2012–13

Cups

• Swiss Super Cup
  • Winner (3): 1987, 1988, 1990

Former coaches

See also: Category:Neuchâtel Xamax FCS managers

Giovanni Ferrari (1946–48) Fernand Jaccard (1948–52) Josef Humpál (1961–65) Milorad Milutinović (1968–69) Josef Humpál (1969–70) Paul Garbani (July 1970 – Jan 72) Josef Artimovits (Jan 1972 – July 72) Lev Mantula (July 1972 – Jan 75) Branko Rezuar (Jan 1975 – July 75) Gilbert Gress (1975–77) Antonio Merlo (July 1977 – April 78) Erich Vogel (April 1978 – October 79) Lev Mantula (October 1979 – July 80) Jean-Marc Guillou (1980–81) Gilbert Gress (1981–90) Roy Hodgson (1990–92) Uli Stielike (Jan 1992 – July 93) Uli Stielike and Don Givens (1993–94) Gilbert Gress (1994–97)

Alain Geiger (1998–02) Claude Ryf (July 2002 – 4 Feb) René Lobello and Christophe Moulin (Feb 2004 – 4 July) René Lobello and Gianni Della Casa (2004–05) Alain Geiger (2005) Miroslav Blažević (2005–06) Gérard Castella (June 2006 – 8 March) Néstor Clausen (2008 – 9 Jan) Jean-Michel Aeby (Jan 2009) Alain Geiger (Jan 2009 – 9 June) Pierre-André Schürmann (June 2009 – 10 April) Jean-Michel Aeby (April 2010 – 10 Aug) Didier Ollé-Nicolle (Sept 2010 – 11 May) Bernard Challandes (May 2011) Sonny Anderson (2011) François Ciccolini (June 2011 – 11 July) Joaquín Caparrós (July 2011 – 11 Sept) Víctor Muñoz (Sept 2011 – 12 Jan)

European record

Season	Competition	Round	Opponents	Home	Away	Aggregate
1981–82	UEFA Cup	1R	Sparta Prague	4–0	2–3	6–3
		2R	Malmö	1–0	1–0	2–0
		3R	Sporting CP	1–0	0–0	1–0
		QF	Hamburg	0–0	2–3	2–3
1984–85	UEFA Cup	1R	Olympiacos	2–2	0–1	2–3
1985–86	UEFA Cup	1R	Sportul Studențesc	3–0	4–4	7–4
		2R	Lokomotiv Sofia	0–0	1–1	1–1 (a)
		3R	Dundee United	3–1	1–2	4–3
		QF	Real Madrid	2–0	0–3	2–3
1986–87	UEFA Cup	1R	Lyngby	2–0	3–1	5–1
		2R	Groningen	1–1	0–0	1–1 (a)
1987–88	European Cup	1R	Kuusysi	5–0	1–2	6–2
		2R	Bayern Munich	2–1	0–2	2–3
1988–89	European Cup	1R	Larissa	2–1	1–2	3–3 (3–0 PSO)
		2R	Galatasaray	3–0	0–5	3–5
1990–91	European Cup Winners' Cup	1R	Estrela de Amadora	1–1	1–1	2–2 (3–4 PSO)
1991–92	UEFA Cup	1R	Floriana	2–0	0–0	2–0
		2R	Celtic	5–1	0–1	5–2
		3R	Real Madrid	1–0	0–4	1–4
1992–93	UEFA Cup	1R	BK Frem	2–2	1–4	3–6
1995–96	UEFA Cup	QR	Red Star Belgrade	0–0	1–0	1–0
		1R	Roma	1–1	0–4	1–4
1996–97	UEFA Cup	QR	Anorthosis Famagusta	4–0	2–1	6–1
		1R	Dynamo Kyiv	2–1	0–0	2–1
		2R	Helsingborg	1–1	0–2	1–3
1997–98	UEFA Cup	Q1	Tiligul-Tiras Tiraspol	7–0	3–1	10–1
		Q2	Viking	3–0	1–2	4–2
		1R	Inter Milan	0–2	0–2	0–4
2003–04	UEFA Cup	QR	Valletta	2–0	2–0	4–0
		1R	Auxerre	0–1	0–1	0–2