Fassnacht signs for City

So… Christian Fassnacht it is then. No one saw that coming. Not even the in-the-knows.

But when Paddy Davitt delivered that #NoCircus tweet on Monday morning, you just knew.

And Paddy was right.

Twenty-nine years old. Nineteen caps for Switzerland. Six-foot one and, get this, 104 goals in 345 games. Not bad for a bloke who has played most of his career as a midfielder.

If, when he eventually departs the Fine City, he still has a goalscoring ratio of one every 3.3 games, then he’ll have been a more-than-worthy parting gift from Stuart Webber. If.

But for now, he’s one who ticks quite a few boxes and who, if he can settle, has much promise.

If, like me, you’re not one of the Football Manager generation – who seem to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the ‘ratings’ of every pro in the world – and his name was one that was only vaguely familiar, let me try and help.

Christian Andreas Fassnacht was born in Zurich on 11 November 1993, and (as far as Google is concerned) led a life of mystery until the age of 21, when he popped up at a small club called FC Tuggen which plays in the third tier of the Swiss footballing pyramid.

He played just 18 games for Tuggen, scoring a more-than-decent 11 goals in the process, which was enough to catch the eye of FC Winterthur, then of the Swiss Challenge League – the second tier.

In his two seasons there, both played in the second tier, he played 50 times and again scored 11 goals before making the move to Super League team, Thun.

His stay there was a relatively short one, just a single season, but 10 goals from 36 games from midfield was a goal/game ratio that hit the radar of Young Boys of Berne – the Man City of Swiss football.

And there he stayed for six seasons; six trophy and goal-laden seasons.

He joined Young Boys at the start of the 2017-18 campaign and between then and 2022-23 they won the title five times. Ironically, the only season during that six-year period when they didn’t win a league title was the one spent under the tutelage of David Wagner.

(Move on swiftly).

In those six seasons, Fassnacht scored 72 goals in 241 games, including 10 in Europe. For the first four seasons, he missed a few games but in the last two, due mainly to a series of injuries, missed a cumulative total of 36.

At 29 and having spent a whole career playing in Swiss football, it looks as if he felt that if he is to try his luck overseas, now is probably the time. Either that or he felt he needed to break free from the Wankdorf Stadium (I kid you not).

Either way, he’s one of us now and so will be afforded all that goes with being a Norwich City player, including our wholehearted support… at least to begin with 🙂

And if he continues that goalscoring form and the happy knack he appears to have of popping up at the far post at just the right time, then we’re all going to get along just fine.

In terms of what type of player he is, his right-footed but, in a world of inverted wingers, looks to have played most of his career as a right-sided midfielder/winger, although he has also played centrally and even as a striker when called upon.

If YouTube is to be our guide, then he doesn’t necessarily do humdingers from a distance but instead gets a lot of his goals from in and around the six-yard box via (as mentioned above) some nicely-timed, late runs into the box.

Whether he was on the wishlist all the way along or if he has been fast-tracked due to the injury to Borja Sainz is unclear but this one, at least from the outside looking in, makes a lot of sense.

Welcome aboard, Christian.