The Swiss national team is a pleasant surprise at Euro 2024. Former Spartak coach Murat Yakin’s team has already reached the quarter-finals and the big question is who is the favourite in their match against England. The Swiss are strong above all as a team. But they also contain some bright figures. One of them is Alexander Golovin’s partner at Monaco, Brill Embolo.
At the European Championships, the Swiss national team still does not have a player who can score more than one goal. Yakin’s team has seven top scorers and each has one goal. Embolo also scored only once, hitting the Hungarian goal in the first round. In that match, Murat replaced the Monaco striker. In the second round against Scotland, Bril also received only half an hour, despite the goal. But in the third round match against Germany and in the round of 16 against Italy, the Swiss coach trusted Embolo in attack. Bril seems to be plowing as he should, but he does not score. His entire career is full of contradictions.
Embolo is already 27 years old and is in his prime. Fans love him, not only for his game, but also because he is always positive. They say that Bril is the only player to whom the Swiss fans dedicated a song. But Embolo was born in Cameroon. After passing through France, she moved with her mother to Basel. She married a Swiss citizen after divorcing the future footballer’s father.
As a child, Embolo tried to get into the Basel academy, but he didn’t make it on the first try. The boy was asked to go somewhere else. He then ended up in the youth team of the Old Boys (yes, there are not only Young Boys in Switzerland). And in 2010, at the age of 13, Bril finally ended up in Basel. And he started collecting all kinds of individual awards, proving that he really was an exceptional talent.
Here are a few paragraphs about Embolo’s professional career. In March 2014 he made his debut for Basel’s first team under the guidance of… Murat Yakin. In just over two seasons he made 90 appearances in all competitions, scoring 31 goals and providing 22 assists. In the summer of 2016, Basel sold Bril to Schalke for 26.5 million euros. The striker spent three seasons with the Gelsenkirchen team and scored 12+9 in 61 games. The Swiss’ next stop in Germany was Mönchengladbach: Borussia bought Embolo from Schalke for just 11 million euros. Bril spent three more seasons there, making 106 appearances and scoring 25+20.
Since 2022, Embolo has been playing for Monaco. The Monegasques paid 12.5 million euros to buy the striker. Playing alongside Golovin, Bril scored 15 goals and provided four assists in 47 games. You can’t call him a super scorer. But he is very useful, especially for his ability to retain the ball under pressure. Unfortunately, Embolo’s career was ruined by injuries. He played only five times in Ligue 1 last season and spent about eight months recovering from a torn cruciate ligament in his knee. In total, Bril suffered about 20 injuries during his professional career. There were also quite serious fractures, for example leg fractures. The value of the Swiss currency therefore decreased.
By the way, the Monaco striker spoke very warmly about Golovin. It seems that the Russian has friendly relations with Embolo.
Bril Embolo
Photo: Chris Ricco/Getty Images
Embolo is interesting not only for his football exploits. He was involved in controversial stories several times. Bril is a kind of miniature Swiss Balotelli. He is not “crazy”, but he can also get strange. By the way, Embolo himself called Mario his idol.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Bril was caught breaking Covid rules several times. His name appeared in the media during the investigation into the sale of fake vaccination certificates (it seems that the footballer simply bought the required document). And in April 2021, Embolo took part in an illegal party in Essen in a restaurant closed due to coronavirus. When the police arrived at the establishment, Bril could not think of anything better than to escape through the roof. He was hiding in an apartment in a neighbouring building. The law enforcement officers, upon entering the apartment, found Embolo in the bathroom.
Borussia Dortmund condemned the player’s behaviour and fined him. Embolo himself denied having participated in the party at the lake and claimed that he had come to Essen to see a friend to watch basketball. A trial then took place, after which Bril was forced to pay a fine to the city of Essen of 8,400 euros.
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Before that, in May 2018, before going to the first World Cup of his career in Russia, Embolo got into a scandal in Switzerland. Bril and his friends performed in the style of Alexander Kokorin and Pavel Mamaev. At five in the morning, Embolo’s company started a conflict with another company in the parking lot. The fight ended in a brawl and one of its participants (fortunately for the footballer, not for him) had his nose broken. Then, for the Swiss national team striker, everything ended up in court as well. He was accused of numerous threats. He shouted at one of the participants in the conflict: “I will destroy you! Don’t you know who I am?” To the second he said: “I will order you to be beaten too, you son of a bitch.”
The trial, curiously, was continued until 2023. Of course, Embolo denied having threatened anyone and cited memory lapses. They say that he forgot the details of what happened after so many years. As a result, the footballer got off with a hefty fine of 137,000 euros and a two-year probation period. But Bril’s friend, who broke a poor man’s nose, was sentenced to nine months of probation.
Embolo has also been fined several times for violating traffic regulations in Switzerland. For example, at the age of 18 he got behind the wheel without a driving licence and ended his journey at the police station.
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However, Bril is loved in Switzerland for his play and spontaneity. He has scored 14 goals and provided 14 assists in 67 games for the national team. Under Embolo, the Swiss reached the playoffs at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2020 (lost on penalties to Spain in St. Petersburg) and qualified from their group for the 2022 World Cup. The striker is still not in top form after a long injury. But if Embolo scores the winning goal for the English, Switzerland will probably forgive him all his sins.
