Swiss Footballer of the Year

The Swiss Footballer of the Year is an annual award given to the best footballer based in Switzerland and the best Swiss national team player.

From the 1972–73 season until the 1997–98 season, the award was chosen by the now defunct Swiss newspaper Sport. Since the original award could only be won by a Swiss national, there was also a Foreigner of the Year award from 1973–74 until 1997–98.

Since 1998, two Player of the Year trophies have been awarded each year; one to the best player in the Swiss Super League known as the Axpo Swiss Super League Player of the Year and the other to the best national team player known as the Credit Suisse Player of the Year.^[1][2][3]

Award winners

Swiss Super League Player of the Year

Awarded annually to the best player in the Swiss Super League.

Year	Player	Nationality	Club	Ref.
1998	Stefan Rehn	Sweden	Lausanne-Sport	[1][3]
1999	Alexandre Rey	Switzerland	Servette	[1][3]
2000	Charles Amoah	Ghana	St. Gallen	[1][3]
2001	Stéphane Chapuisat	Switzerland	Grasshoppers	[1][3]
2002	Murat Yakin	Switzerland	Basel	[citation needed]
2003	Hakan Yakin	Switzerland	Basel	[4]
2004	Stéphane Chapuisat (2)	Switzerland	Young Boys	[1][3]
2005	Ricardo Cabanas	Switzerland	Grasshoppers	[1][3]
2006	Matías Delgado	Argentina	Basel	[5]
2007	Mladen Petrić	Croatia	Basel	[6][7]
2008	Hakan Yakin (2)	Switzerland	Young Boys	[1][3]
2009	Seydou Doumbia	Ivory Coast	Young Boys	[8]
2010	Seydou Doumbia (2)	Ivory Coast	Young Boys	[8]
2011	Alexander Frei	Switzerland	Basel	[9]
2012	Alexander Frei (2)	Switzerland	Basel	[9][10]
2013	Mohamed Salah	Egypt	Basel	[11]
2014	Shkëlzen Gashi	Albania	Grasshoppers	[12]
2015	Breel Embolo	Switzerland	Basel	[13]
2016	Guillaume Hoarau	France	Young Boys	[14]
2017	Michael Lang	Switzerland	Basel	[15]
2018	Kevin Mbabu	Switzerland	Young Boys	[16]
2019	Jean-Pierre Nsame	Cameroon	Young Boys	[17]
2020	Jean-Pierre Nsame (2)	Cameroon	Young Boys	[17]
2021	Arthur Cabral	Brazil	Basel	[18]
2022	Fabian Rieder	Switzerland	Young Boys	[19]
2023	Meschak Elia	DR Congo	Young Boys	[20]
2024	Alvyn Sanches	Switzerland	Lausanne-Sport	[citation needed]

Swiss Player of the Year

Awarded to the best player of the Swiss national team.

Year	Player	Club	Ref.
1998	Wicky, RaphaëlRaphaël Wicky	Werder Bremen	[21]
1999	Sforza, CiriacoCiriaco Sforza	1. FC Kaiserslautern	[21]
2000	Sesa, DavidDavid Sesa	Lecce	[21]
2001	Henchoz, StéphaneStéphane Henchoz	Liverpool	[21]
2002	Henchoz, StéphaneStéphane Henchoz (2)	Liverpool	[21]
2003	Stiel, JörgJörg Stiel	Borussia Mönchengladbach	[21]
2004	Frei, AlexanderAlexander Frei	Rennes	[21]
2005	Frei, AlexanderAlexander Frei (2)	Rennes	[21]
2006	Senderos, PhilippePhilippe Senderos	Arsenal	[21]
2007	Frei, AlexanderAlexander Frei (3)	Borussia Dortmund	[7]
2008	Barnetta, TranquilloTranquillo Barnetta	Bayer Leverkusen	[21]
2009	Benaglio, DiegoDiego Benaglio	VfL Wolfsburg	[22]
2010	Huggel, BenjaminBenjamin Huggel	Basel	[23]
2011	Shaqiri, XherdanXherdan Shaqiri	Basel	[24]
2012	Shaqiri, XherdanXherdan Shaqiri (2)	Basel	[25]
2013	Benaglio, DiegoDiego Benaglio (2)	VfL Wolfsburg	[26]
2014	Ricardo Rodríguez	VfL Wolfsburg	[27]
2015	Lichtsteiner, StephanStephan Lichtsteiner	Juventus	[28]
2016	Sommer, YannYann Sommer	Borussia Mönchengladbach	[29]
2017	Xhaka, GranitGranit Xhaka	Arsenal	[30]
2018	Sommer, YannYann Sommer (2)	Borussia Mönchengladbach	[2]
2019	Seferovic, HarisHaris Seferovic	Benfica	[31]
2020	Not awarded[citation needed]
2021	Sommer, YannYann Sommer (3)	Borussia Mönchengladbach	[32]
2022	Xhaka, GranitGranit Xhaka (2)	Arsenal	[33]
2023	Xhaka, GranitGranit Xhaka (3)	Bayer Leverkusen	[20]

By player

Rank	Player	Wins
1	Frei, AlexanderAlexander Frei	3
	Sommer, YannYann Sommer
	Xhaka, GranitGranit Xhaka
4	Benaglio, DiegoDiego Benaglio	2
	Henchoz, StéphaneStéphane Henchoz
	Shaqiri, XherdanXherdan Shaqiri

Sport Nationalliga A awards

Nationalliga A Foreigner of the Year

1989 award recipient Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
Sport	Association football
League	Nationalliga A
Awarded for	best performing foreign player over the course of a season in the Nationalliga A.
Presented by	Sport
History
First award	1975; 50 years ago (1975)
Editions	24
Final award	1998; 27 years ago (1998)
First winner	Ilija Katić
Most wins	Jurica Jerković (3 wins)
Most recent	Shabani Nonda

1975−1998: Foreigner of the Year

Previously awarded annually to the best foreign player in the Nationalliga A.^[34]

Season	Player	Nationality	Club
1975	Ilija Katić	Yugoslavia	Zürich
1976	Ilija Katić (2)	Yugoslavia	Zürich
1977	Eigil Nielsen	Denmark	Basel
1978	Martin Chivers	England	Servette
1979	Jurica Jerković	Yugoslavia	Zürich
1980	Piet Hamberg	Netherlands	Servette
1981	Robert Kok	Netherlands	Lausanne Sports
1982	Jurica Jerković (2)	Yugoslavia	Zürich
1983	Jurica Jerković (3)	Yugoslavia	Zürich
1984	Raúl Nogués	Argentina	La Chaux-de-Fonds
1985	Charly Herberth	Germany	FC Aarau
1986	Lars Lunde	Denmark	Young Boys Bern
1987	Robert Prytz	Sweden	Young Boys Bern
1988	John Eriksen	Denmark	Servette
1989	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	Germany	Servette
1990	Ivan Zamorano	Chile	FC St. Gallen
1991	Edwin Gorter	Netherlands	FC Lugano
1992	Igor Dobrovolski	Russia	Servette
1993	Sonny Anderson	Brazil	Servette
1994	Giovane Élber	Brazil	Grasshoppers
1995	Petar Aleksandrov	Bulgaria	Neuchâtel Xamax
1996	Viorel Moldovan	Romania	Neuchâtel Xamax
1997	Viorel Moldovan (2)	Romania	Grasshoppers
1998	Shabani Nonda	DR Congo	Zürich

Nationalliga A Swiss Footballer of the Year

Inaugural award recipient Karl Odermatt
Sport	Association football
League	Nationalliga A
Awarded for	best performing Swiss player over the course of a season in the Nationalliga A.
Presented by	Sport
History
First award	1973; 52 years ago (1973)
Editions	25
Final award	1998; 27 years ago (1998)
First winner	Karl Odermatt
Most wins	Heinz Hermann (5 wins)
Most recent	Kubilay Türkyilmaz

1973−1998: Swiss Footballer of the Year

Previously awarded to the best Swiss player playing in the Swiss Super League.^[34][3]

Season	Player	Club
1973	Karl Odermatt	Basel
1974	Not awarded
1975	Umberto Barberis	Grasshoppers
1976	Köbi Kuhn	Zürich
1977	Hansjörg Pfister	Servette
1978	Rudolf Elsener	Grasshoppers
1979	Umberto Barberis (2)	Grasshoppers
1980	Umberto Barberis (3)	Grasshoppers
1981	Heinz Lüdi	Zürich
1982	Claudio Sulser	Grasshoppers
1983	Lucien Favre	Servette
1984	Heinz Hermann	Grasshoppers
1985	Heinz Hermann (2)	Grasshoppers
	Rolf Osterwalder	Aarau
1986	Heinz Hermann (3)	Neuchâtel Xamax
1987	Heinz Hermann (4)	Neuchâtel Xamax
1988	Heinz Hermann (5)	Neuchâtel Xamax
1989	Peter Nadig	Luzern
1990	Andy Egli	Grasshoppers
1991	Adrian Knup	Luzern
1992	Jean-Paul Brigger	Sion
1993	Ciriaco Sforza	Grasshoppers
1994	Thomas Bickel	Grasshoppers
1995	Nestor Subiat	Grasshoppers
1996	Kubilay Türkyilmaz	Grasshoppers
1997	Kubilay Türkyilmaz (2)	Grasshoppers
1998	Kubilay Türkyilmaz (3)	Grasshoppers