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.
Your online provider of independent, biased, partisan FC Luzern related propaganda since 2008. And in English too.
JUST CAN'T BEAT THAT 
Was the 3 game ban not for kicking Van Persie?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZBBdG_Tfow
You may be right. Separate incidents. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/8252803.stm
The guy is a young lad who hasn’t featured much for them (according to Wikipedia’s stats) so maybe he just got carried away. The racist stuff is beyond the pale.
Having said that about Wiki – most of the stuff on there is nonsense as per the edit history of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Lonsdale
was there, too! the genius you mention two seats to my left.
die erschti reihe höpft ole!!!
This “anonymous innovating hero” is called “Alpenloewe” and is a member of the infamous “Hüetli-Club”. So just come and visit us next home game, I guess your chance to get a free beer from us is quite high as we love your page and the way you think
Cheers,
Daniel
Daniel,
Thank you for your comment – where is this infamous “Hüetli-Club” of which you speak?
We shall be sure to redeem our free beer.
Cheers
Michael
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amade-ch/4805798410/in/set-72157624529267114/
look @ top left of this pic, we’re the guys with the blue-white hats (“hüetli” is swiss german for small hat).
zone 2, next to our loved beer…
cheers
So you are in amongst these chaps here: http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3540/screenshot20100812at173.png
I think we are further along in Zone 2. Usually near the back on the right side behind the goal. See you at the next home game then.
Wikipedia user Daveh86 you are also a hero for standing up to tyranny of mediocrity and doing the right thing.
One day the world of user generated trivia will be ready for our bold and revolutionary update on the home page of the African audio torture device. One day.
Zibung is a hero
Hakan is a hero
Ianu is a hero!! “Cristian Ianu, schiess bald weder es gool!!!”
Pure magic.
I agree – that ground is the worst in super league for football, though I have not yet been to Thun.
What a goal from Paiva. http://www.videoportal.sf.tv/video?id=7e8420f1-f2a4-462d-8418-4d2c4f8f796a
More snails please.
More snails are coming right up…..
I never knew you agreed on the stadium, but having just read this: http://justcantbeatthat.com/who-are-they/grasshopper-club/ I know what you mean!
It is a ghastly soulless arena, severely lacking in punters, let alone atmosphere. Watching a game there is akin to watching one in the Scottish Premier League.
Nice article, just a small hint: already a 0-4 defeat against thun would cost us the lead… however – still highly unlikely.
Thun only needs to win 0:4?
Maesi? I have never claimed maths as a strong point, but going by the league table above – FCL have a positive goal difference of 11, and Thun 4….
11-4=7, so Thun have to win by 8 goals to overtake FCL on goal difference???? Or does the Swiss League have different rules?
If I am wrong, I will happily correct it?????
0:4 is correct, the difference is the second priority after the points.
thun 7gms 15:7(+8)goals 13points
fcl 7 18:11(+7) 13
Fair point…. In my excitement of realising that FCL will be top of the league for a couple of weeks, I hadn’t considered LU’s defence to be conceding any goals… time to hit the edit button I guess.
2-0 spurs, right now it looks like the team itself is the biggest joke.
Anonymous – that is a well known fact. I refer you to the day in May when they came to the Gersag in their numbers, and had they won they would have pretty much been in pole position to win the league. Instead they got smashed 5-1 by FCL….
We know they are a joke – Still hope they can beat Spurs though!
Swiss catholic priests favorite football team?
‘Winning doesn’t really matter as long as you win’.
Ironic that Vinny ‘Psycho’ Jones holds the record for the fastest ever yellow card. Just three seconds.
Thanks for commenting Dan, but what has that got to do with anything? And in what way is a yellow card for Vinny ironic? It could possibly be that if he had made previous statements on how fair he was. Or is the first sentence a quote from Vinny and you see fouling other players after three second as something you wouldn’t do if winning was very important. Just curious.
Their mum is doing the half time food – no dirty plastic sausage for us. Turkish sandwiches – yum!
and you’ll be first in the queue for Mama Yakin’s mutton, cabbage and yoghurt wraps….
Its a bit far to Geneva, but Lausanne is a team I could consider going to see in the Europa league. If you boys have a GA then why not?
“It is at this point unclear if we should count the points we need to avoid relegation or start dreaming of champions league next season.”
No – disagree, FCL have had a belter of a start to the season – they need to build on it and go for a top three finish. Anything lower than fourth spot will be epic failure.
Anything else than the Championship is a disappointment and not tolerable
COME ON LUCERNE!
Doubt I will go. Need to focus on the right games away. Sausage munchers away 25th Sept is one. Sion Merde Allez 31 October is a given.
“The human Vuvuzela invented by the FC Luzern fans remains a kick in the genitals of the clowns at Nyon. Keep it going and spread the word”
Brilliant!!!!
The folks in Nylon will be banning church bells next !
we’d better get the chance to travel to more than just one european destination next year!
The family of this chap still own the club. His main work in CH seems to be either based in Fribourg or Schaffhausen so not sure if he or the family have a personal connection to Fringer.
ROLF – DON’T DO IT! The shadow of Fat Le Tissier will always be above you!
maybe we shouldn’t worry about this too much, appears Rolf isn’t even on the bookies lists
http://www.online-betting-guide.co.uk/next-southampton-manager.htm