Zeki Amdouni: Switzerland’s striker saviour with a growing knack for moments
A Europe Conference League top scorer, Amdouni's disenchanted season at Burnley is an outlier in a career that has displayed a player with the skillset and knack suited to be Switzerland’s next great.
This article is the latest piece of xG Files’ ‘EuroFiles’ series for the upcoming European Championship, profiling 24 players from the qualified nations with expert opinions from journalists, writers, editors, and media guides from each respective nation, which you can find here.
There was a chance that the current Switzerland manager, Murat Yakin, wouldn't get the opportunity to continue coaching his side into the upcoming European Championships. Despite just about qualifying for the tournament, their campaign was littered with doubt and tension as his side managed to stave off Israel for the last automatic qualifying place in Group I.
The games were tight: they drew more (5) than they won (4). According to Swiss-German reports, personality clashes with senior players such as Granit Xhaka and Manuel Akanji did little to ease camp unrest, and long-admired candidates Urs Fischer and Lucien Favre becoming available on the market made the idea of letting Yakin go as possible as ever.
But a statement from the Swiss FA reaffirming their “backing in all aspects” averted calls for his job.
However, as Yakin gears up for his second international tournament as Swiss coach, he should thank the explosive goal-getter Zeki Amdouni for it.
Yakin was the coach who gave Amdouni his senior debut in September 2022, but if it weren't for external factors such as Breel Embolo’s ACL injury at the start of the season, Amdouni’s path and Switzerland's long-term answer to their attacking conundrum might not have ever been clear.
“Switzerland's have been looking for a top striker and natural goalscorer since the days of Alexander Frei, and [the] hope is [that] Zeki is the answer,” Swiss journalist, Stephan Roth said.
Like Frei, Amdouni has seemingly gained the knack of scoring in different ways, adeptly using his head and both feet, albeit with a bias on his right. Where the pair do differ, Frei, at the peak of his powers, was a brute finisher who would occupy the opposition box in a true traditional No. 9 way, whereas Amdouni tends to provide off a natural striker, as seen in his breakthrough with Basel and (in spurts) with Burnley.
Recently departed manager Vincent Kompany described him as an “intelligent footballer, technically gifted with a great work ethic” upon Amdouni’s arrival last summer.
He was born and raised in Geneva (the French-speaking part of Switzerland) to a Turkish father, Hasan, and a Swiss-Tusian mother, Alia, both of whom had worked in the family kebab kiosk in Plainpalais district.
When Hasan wasn't working in the kiosk, he was playing football with a young Amdouni in the park. The pair would play every day, but unlike every other day where Amdouni would walk home ball in hand with the gleeful feeling of the next day whilst kicking the ball around with his father, a recruiter from Servette FC would approach the two with a place in the club’s academy—he would spend six years with the club’s youth side until 12—and would decline an opportunity to come back after being released due to a lengthy lay-off from a foot operation.
Local club Meyrin would capitalise on Amdouni’s availability; a journey across the city to the club’s facility for training wouldn't deter.
Étoile Carouge, a club based closer to his home surroundings, offered him a chance to start out his professional career in the fourth tier of Swiss football. Amdouni would spend two seasons at the club; after 20 goals in 45 games and a significant hand in the club’s promotion, it was clear that Amdouni could and would operate at a higher level—of the many times going forward, he would prove to be a driving force in his team’s success.
He would move up two divisions into the second tier, with Stade Lausanne Ouchy offering him his first professional contract in 2019, before being tempted by their INEOS-owned rivals Lausanne-Sport to make the inevitable jump to the Swiss top flight as the division's record-ever sale for €2.5 million.
Lausanne suffered relegation that season, not to the detriment of Amdouni, who finished with 12 goals to attract the rest of the league.
“He [Amdouni] couldn't save Lausanne from relegation, but Zeki made a name for himself,” said Roth.
Basel, under the mentor-like eye of the aforementioned Frei, would exercise a deal that would take the forward on loan for two years with an option to buy for under €5 million (with a 15% sell-on fee).
It was a deal tailored for the long term, but Amdouni's performances showed a player who was the real deal right away. In the longer leagues, he was a player managers would utilise out wide—a combination of pace and skill that would prove beneficial in gaining his side yardage in games.
At Basel, he was the star of the show—and very much at the heart of anything positive going forward. Others would progress to him, but once the ball would reach him in the final third, he had either the ingenuity to craft an opportunity for himself or the awareness to lay it off for a teammate and attack vacated space.
Domestically, games were restricted; space was minimal as Basel was one of the better sides in the league, and teams would set up accordingly. In Europe, matches were more open and transition-heavy, in which Amdouni shone—he was the competition's joint top scorer with seven as he redlined a remarkable run to the semi-finals.
While this was going on, Amdouni was the subject of a three-team international tussle with Turkey, Tunisia, and Switzerland, all vying for his recognition, but apart from the one-off appearance with Turkey’s under-21s, his heart always remained with Switzerland—his homeland. And despite not making the World Cup squad for the 2022 edition, once he received consistent call-ups to the camp, his burgeoning career matched up to the international scene.
As mentioned, the No. 9 role has been a quandary for Switzerland in recent times. The structure behind it has the ability to spark, especially 32-year-old Xherdan Shaqiri, who still has exceptional ability and faithfully remains a starter on the right of any Swiss attack. Amdouni’s integration brought balance, as well as needed legs to the Swiss frontline as he shifted between the left flank and down the middle—only Cristiano Ronaldo generated a higher xG during qualifying.
In their 2-2 draw vs. Romania, Switzerland and Amdouni’s second goal showed the transnational base that Yakin’s side have excelled in at times. Shaqiri receiving the ball on the right flank as a go-to passing outlet, spotting an onrushing Amdouni run and finishing it on the run.
Switzerland would go on to concede two late goals, highlighting the deficiencies still within the squad that have led to doubts over Yakin.
As his international pedigree rose, so did the regard from wider Europe. The allure (and considerable funds) of the Premier League would prove tempting as talks with international teammates Xhaka and Shaqiri and, of course, Kompany, meant Basel, who activated Amdouni’s buyout clause, would make a sizeable profit as he left two months later as part of a massive fire sale.
A year in the Premier League has shown that, despite his growing reputation in his nation, he’s still learning. Yet to score in back-to-back games for Burnley, a feat he achieved three separate times the season prior in the league alone.
When losing out to the Swiss Young Player of the Year to Fabian Rieder, he tweeted a cryptic response mocking the desicon with four laughing emojis—a nativity to the character as well.
Amdouni reiterates the patience and self-belief he needed in his early career to get to where he is. Now he has to match that with maturity and composure—if he can, there is little doubt that Switzerland has the man for any moment and the future.