The captain of FC Luzern – Gerardo Seoane, a genuinely nice guy gives us his opinions on the club and its strong Central Swiss identity.

Full Name: Gerardo Seoane
Age: 30
Nationality: Swiss
Position: Defender
2009 Shirt Number: 6

You played for FC Luzern back in the nineties, what are the main differences you see now compared to say, ten years ago?
I started my junior career here in Luzern, I went through all the youth teams, and the club then gave me the chance to play in the first divison. Since then the club has changed a lot. When I left it had lots of financial problems. Although it always had one or two very good players on high salaries, the club had ten bad years because of money problems. With the new president Mr Stierli the club is now well run, we do not end a season in the red any more. We can now sign good players, the club is growing. The new stadium and the new revenue it will bring will allow us improve the facilities for young players to ensure that the first team can get new local talent. Last season we were fighting to stay up, this season its clear that we have a good team and coaching staff. We are still improving, I think we are at 70% of where we can get to.

You got your first professional contract at FC Luzern, what was the first ‘big’ thing you bought with your salary?
When I turned pro I was also taking driving lessons. The first thing you want as a young player is a car. So I bought a small Golf, I still remember how much I liked this car. It was the first big gift I could give myself.

You have played in Spain, and at several Swiss clubs, what made you come back to FC Luzern?
It was not as if I really wanted to leave Luzern, the club had lots of problems at the time. I had the possibility to change to better clubs, so I went to the double winning Sion team. I then went on to Spain and came back to good Swiss clubs like Grashoppers, the club with the most titles.

I always said to the people that I know here in Luzern that I wanted to come back. But I did not want to come back when I was 32 or 33, I wanted to come back when I could still give something back to the club. I am from Luzern, I grew up here. I know all the people here, my whole family is here so for me it is a big honor to play for my local club.

So you are a local boy who plays for his local team. What does it make you think to see FC Sion yesterday play with no Swiss players at all on the pitch?
I played in Sion, we had a squad of about 30 players out of which 25 were foreign. When you’re winning this is not a problem, but when you are not playing so well it is very important to have local players. Here in FCL the heart of the team is from central Switzerland, eight or nine players are local, we also have five or six young players coming through. This is a strength, last season we were in big trouble, if our squad had been all foreign I doubt we would have stayed up. We are based in the middle of Switzerland with a strong Swiss identity, the team has to be the same. Other cities closer to the borders have more of an international feel to them. We also have fanatic supporters and its important for them to see local players in the team. Of course they are very happy to see us sign big players from outside, but the heart of the team stays local.

We also see talented local young players like Alain Wiss and Lior Etter taking the step up, how important is this for the other young players?
This is the clubs’ mentality, we keep improving the facilities for all ages, have very good professional youth coaches. Luzern always want to move at least two players from the juniors to the first team.

I already put this question to Mr Zibung, you can probably guess his answer. Would you rather win one game 1-0 or 4-3?
Although I have to defend, I still want 4-3. Football is about emotions and the goals are the strongest emotions. We just need to score more than our opponents.

Last season we lost a lot of games in the final 15 minutes. This season its the other way around. Is this a mental or physical change?
A bit of both. The end of the last season really motivated us. We grow as a group, we kept the team and got two new very strong players. We managed to succeed at the last moment of the season, now we have this attitude in every game. We always know that we can turn it around at the last moment.

How is your injury? Is it getting better? when can we see you fully fit and back in the team?
It is getting better. It needs time. I am doing exercises alone with the physical coach but hope to be back with the rest of the team on Monday.

Finally what about Sunday against Bellinzona?
We will win, we just need to improve a bit, be a bit more creative.