Swiss goalkeeper talent
©IMAGO
Gregor Kobel (26; BVB), Jonas Omlin (30; Gladbach), Yann Sommer (35; Inter), Philipp Köhn (26; Monaco) – quite a few Swiss goalkeepers are currently playing at the top level. One who wants to follow in their footsteps is U21 national goalkeeper Marvin Keller (22) from BSC Young Boys.
Last season had a surprise in store for him at the end: Keller had already seen himself on vacation when he was suddenly invited to help the senior national team prepare for the European Championships. He says of the conversation with Swiss goalkeeping coach Patrick Foletti: “The phone call really only lasted a few minutes – basically saying: Marvin, you’re in, we’ll meet there and this is what you need to bring with you. Of course it was a positive shock. When you start playing football as a small child, you dream of playing for the national team like the national team stars.”
Keller was also in the squad for the penultimate test against Estonia (4:0). “It was a highly emotional moment for me when I came into the dressing room and held the national jersey with my name on it. Even though I didn’t play, my time with the national team was incredibly educational,” he says. For example, he received tips from Sommer on training preparation, mental training and nutrition. Sommer, Kobel and Yvon Mvogo (30; Lorient) were nominated for the tournament in Germany.
Keller spent last season on loan at FC Winterthur, where he played 34 games and kept seven clean sheets. His market value rose from €800,000 to €2.5 million within one year – seven goalkeepers in the country are valued higher. Keller played a part in ensuring that relegation candidate FCW not only stayed in the league, but even reached the championship round. Ultimately, they finished the season in sixth place.
© imago – Marvin Keller in the Winterthur jersey
“The experience I was able to gain in Winterthur was not a given. After all, not every first division club gives a young goalkeeper so much match practice. For me, the time in Winterthur was so great because we had a great team with great characters. In general, the whole city supports the club and that’s how the euphoria was able to arise,” says Keller.
Berns Keller on role model Bürki: “As a child I was fascinated by him”
He has been a goalkeeper since he was a child: “It all started when my father bought goalkeeper gloves at the flea market. I was so enthusiastic about them that I practiced some somersaults in bed that same evening and fell asleep wearing them.” His role model was Roman Bürki (33): “As a child, I was enthusiastic about him. I particularly liked the fact that he was and is a spectacular goalkeeper. He celebrated every save and sometimes played very explosively.”
Keller, who was born in England, was trained at Grasshopper Club Zurich and made it into the professional squad there. His career almost came to an early end: In the U16s, he seriously injured his shoulder and had to take a six-month break. “It was a shock for me, I just felt empty at first. When you play football every day and suddenly you’re out, it’s hard to understand. My family helped me a lot during this time and supported me a lot. This time also shaped my character. I realized that I would not let an injury like that take away my dream of playing professional football,” he says.
However, he was denied a breakthrough at Grasshoppers, which is why he moved to second division club FC Wil 1900 in 2021 without playing for the professional team. There he had to be patient at first: Keller was only a back-up, but over time he rose to number one. “In professional football, you have to be 100 percent there every minute of the game. There’s a lot at stake: money, success, prestige. It was good for me to get used to this pressure at a smaller club rather than being thrown in at the deep end at GC,” says Keller, who moved to Bern in February 2023. His contract there is still three years valid.
He describes himself as “extremely inquisitive and willing to learn”: “If I make a mistake, I want to benefit from it. I work a lot with exercises for hand-eye coordination, and playing chess also helps me. I believe that in addition to pure pattern recognition and game practice, intuition and gut feeling play an important role in holding the ball. There are many situations in which what you have learned does not help you immediately, but you have to listen to your gut feeling: for example, you are already heading for a corner and you block the ball as you fall because your body has given you an impulse in the other direction.”
Keller sees the goalkeeper as a “key position” and is convinced that one must have a certain charisma: “I want to give my teammates a sense of security – something like: don’t worry, I’ll hold the ball if necessary.” As a keeper, you have to be “crazy if you voluntarily let a ball be shot into your face from a meter away,” he says, laughing.
The new season in Switzerland started at the end of July and after returning to Young Boys, Keller has to be content with the role of challenger – David von Ballmoos (29) is still between the posts. But Keller feels motivated by this: “Of course I want to play. I use every training session to show myself. I wait patiently and ambitiously for my chance. In general, we have big goals as a team and I want to make my contribution.”
Interview: Henrik Stadnischenko
