“The fitness debate is a bit embarrassing to me!”

“A lot has been written about it. I’m a little embarrassed to respond to this debate. We’re all professionals, we come here to play the whole game. None of us want to work part-time. A game lasts 90, 95 minutes, everyone can play 90, 95 minutes, I don’t see any problems and I’m ready. Did Murat Yakin say exactly that, that I can’t play two games in four days? It doesn’t matter how long you’re on the pitch, as a national player you want to do your best for your country. I try to show myself, even in training. I’m not coming here to go on holiday. I want to perform and I want to achieve something big at a big tournament.”

“There is no agreed role. We are open and transparent. We take it game by game. The coach decides how he wants to approach a game tactically. Unfortunately, only eleven players can start. Me as a joker? We’ll see, everyone has to accept their role. It is very open and transparent between the coach and me, on both sides. If I come off the bench, I will give everything as always and help the team. Of course, the pressure is even higher at a European Championship. Everyone has to be able to deal with that. In the end, the coach decides, everyone has to accept that, including me.”

“As long as everything in my body holds up, my knees, my hips, everything is fine. I try to play football for as long as possible until I get up in the morning and say I don’t feel like it anymore. At the moment I really want to play football. I’m always happy to be involved in a big tournament with the national team. As always, I really enjoy being here with the guys and having this excitement before a big event that you don’t have every day.”

“I think he had a very big season with Leverkusen. I’m happy for him that he finally won his first title in Germany. He won a cup competition once with Arsenal. But the national championship is something else. When I won that title with Bayern, it was very special. In Germany, with the crazy fans. I’m happy for him. Granit came with even more self-confidence, but he already has a lot of self-confidence. You can see it on the pitch. I hope he can take that with him to the team. But here is the national team, maybe there’s even more pressure on him now, he has to be able to deal with it. I hope he can carry on like this.”

“It’s clear that I went to Chicago with different ambitions. We finally wanted to make it to the playoffs. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the right tools for that. You also have to ask sporting director Heitz whether the right players were brought in over the past few years. With Miami, you can see what a difference four or five new players can make. I hope that Chicago can finally make it to the playoffs in the near future. That has to be the first goal; you can’t go from zero to 100 straight away. You have to approach something like that slowly and make the right decisions; that’s very important in football. Unfortunately, the right decisions weren’t made over the past few years. That’s why we now have this result. Hopefully the sporting management will learn from its mistakes.”

“It’s clear that my football has a certain street creativity. A team needs a player like that. Someone who can score goals out of nowhere. Or with a good free kick. You have that in you, you can’t train it. Like with Messi, he didn’t learn it. It’s similar with me, I didn’t work for it. That’s a talent that players can have. And I’m glad I have it. It’s a pro for me that I have that little something extra.”

“Many people underestimate this team. They have had good experience over the last few years and have qualified time and again. We must not underestimate them. The Hungarians are unpleasant and can also play football. It will be a big fight. We have to hold our own. Every team wants to start well, but something can always happen. We know what we can do, it’s also about our qualities. If we bring that onto the pitch, we can win. On the other hand, you can also lose against a team like that.”

“My highlights? I would have to be here for two hours to tell you everything. Swiss football and the national team have developed, the opponents have more respect for us, that’s clear. Because our quality has also increased, many of us play in good clubs and have gained experience. We have gotten better and better over the years. The best national team of all time? I don’t like to say things like that. At some point we need an exploit to say that. We were very close to reaching the semi-finals at the last European Championship. We try to do better at every tournament. I hope that Switzerland can lift a trophy at some point.”

“It was perhaps one of my most beautiful goals. If we had progressed, it would have been even better. I always enjoy watching it. Goals like that are what you play football for, what you live for. The goal was also very important, after that we had a boost and several chances. Unfortunately we lost on penalties.”

“I don’t look too much into the future. I live from day to day. So I don’t know whether I’ll still be at the World Cup in two years. The fact is that my contract with Chicago expires in the winter. There’s a strong tendency for me to look for a new club and to come back to Europe. Let’s see what happens. But I’m very relaxed about it. First of all, I have to respect my contract in Chicago. How, where and what, I can’t say. I still feel good, going back to Europe would be cool. I’d get back into the rhythm here, which would definitely be good for my future in the national team. Back to Switzerland? I’m from Basel.” (aargauerzeitung.ch)