Nicolas Hunziker (born 23 February 1996) is a retired Swiss footballer who played as a forward.

Nicolas Hunziker
Personal information
Full name Nicolas Hunziker
Date of birth (1996-02-23) 23 February 1996 (age 28)
Place of birth Büsserach, Switzerland
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
2002–2008 Breitenbach
2008–2016 Basel
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2015–2017 Basel 3 (0)
2016–2017Grasshopper (loan) 14 (1)
2017–2019 Thun 38 (3)
2020 Baden 0 (0)
International career
2011 Switzerland U-15 2 (0)
2011–2012 Switzerland U-16 7 (5)
2012–2014 Switzerland U-17 10 (3)
2014–2015 Switzerland U-19 7 (11)
2015–2016 Switzerland U-20 7 (1)
2016–2017 Switzerland U-21 5 (2)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Hunziker grew up Büsserach and because there is no football club in the small village he played his early football with local amateur club FC Breitenbach in the neighbouring village. FC Basel scouted him in 2007 and after a trainings week he joined Basel's youth section in 2008. Hunziker advanced through the ranks regularly and was soon called up to the represent Switzerland at youth level.

For the season 2014–15 he advanced to Basel's U-21 team, who played in the Promotion League, the third tier of Swiss football and played for them regularly. After having played in two test games Hunziker played his debut for the first team in the Swiss Cup game on 15 August 2015 as Basel won 4–0 against FC Meyrin.[1] On 29 February 2016 Hunziker extended his professional contract with the club and he joined Basel's first team for the remainder of their 2015–16 season under head coach Urs Fischer.[2] Hunziker played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game on 13 April as Basel won 4–1 against Lugano coming in as substitute.[3]

Hunziker had had three short appearances with the first team that season and won the 2015–16 Super League championship. However, then he was loaned to Grasshopper Club for the following season and here he was able to gain match practice in fourteen league games, scoring one goal.[4]

After his loan period he did not return to Basel but he moved on. During his short period with their first team, Hunziker played a total of 12 games for Basel without scoring a goal. Three of these games were in the Swiss Super League, one in the Swiss Cup and eight were friendly games.[5]

On 1 June 2017, Basel announced that Hunziker had signed a three-year contract for Thun.[6] Hunziker did not play regularly, mainly due to injuries. However one match is notable for the player, on 6 May 2018 he was substituted in during the match against Grasshopper Club. Hunziker scored two goals within a matter of minutes to turn the game into a 2–1 victory after being a goal down as he came on.[7]

On 11 September 2019 FC Thun announced, the contract with Hunziker, which would have been valid until the following summer, was terminated early. Due to various long-term injuries, the center forward had never fully been able to demonstrate his talent.[8]

He later joined Baden to keep fit, but could not advance to their first team. On 18 August 2020 the then 24-year old Hunziker announced his retirement from professional football due to his constant injuries.[9]

Hunziker has completed various junior international matches from the U-15 to the Swiss U-21 team. His last match for the U-21 was on 5 September 2017.

References

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  1. ^ Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv” (15 August 2015). "FC Meyrin - FC Basel 0:4 (0:1)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  2. ^ FC Basel 1893 (29 February 2016). "FCB verlängert Profivertrag mit Nicolas Hunziker". FCB extends professional contract with Nicolas Hunziker (in German). FC Basel 1893 AG. Retrieved 16 November 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv” (13 April 2016). "FC Lugano - FC Basel 1:4 (0:4)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  4. ^ FC Basel 1893. "Nicolas Hunziker wechselt leihweise zu GC". Nicolas Hunziker joins GC on loan (in German). FC Basel 1893 AG. Retrieved 16 November 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "Nicolas Hunziker - FCB statistic". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  6. ^ FC Basel 1893. "Nicolas Hunziker wechselt zum FC Thun". Nicolas Hunziker signs for FC Thun (in German). FC Basel 1893 AG. Retrieved 16 November 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Tedesco, E. (7 May 2018). "Den Hunziker kann man ja nicht brauchen". You really don't need Hunziker (in German). 20min.ch. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  8. ^ Moser, Pascal (11 September 2019). "FC Thun trennt sich von Mittelstürmer Nicolas Hunziker". FC Thun center forward Nicolas Hunziker separate (in German). nau.ch. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  9. ^ Mit nur 24 Jahren: Nicolas Hunziker vom FC Baden beendet seine Karriere, aargauerzeitung.ch, 18 August 2020
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