West Ham United have been visiting Switzerland for over a century.
The first occasion was back in May 1924, when the Hammers scored a 1-0 win over FC Bern during a continental tour that included stops in Germany, Switzerland and France.
After arriving in Bern from the German city of Freiburg, the Hammers played the sixth match of their tour the following evening, albeit in ‘farcical’ conditions such that ‘the ball was floating and water polo instead of football became the order’. Outside-right Tommy Yews scored the only goal in a 1-0 win.
Seven years later, the Hammers embarked on a ‘motor tour’ in a Hillman saloon coach, travelling across the English Channel and through France to Switzerland, visiting Reims Cathedral, a casino in Besançon and Mount Pilatus above Lake Lucerne on the way.
After a day climbing in the Alps, the Hammers defeated Lucerne 2-0, with Jim Harris scoring both goals. More mountaineering followed, before West Ham travelled to Zürich and Jim Barrett’s hat-trick and two more goals from Harris helped the visitors to a 5-2 win over Young Fellows.
The tour ended with a third victory, 4-3 over Basel, where David Fereday, Wilf James, Walter Pollard and Yews all found the net.
Just three more years passed before the Irons were back in the mountains, this time for a five-game visit. West Ham did not have things all their own way this time, drawing 2-2 in Bern and losing 3-1 to the Swiss national team in Zürich and 1-0 in St Gallen, but the Londoners did thrash Kreuzlingen and Lucerne by identical 9-2 scorelines.
Joe Musgrave scored just two competitive goals in 40 appearances for West Ham, but he was prolific in Switzerland, scoring twice at Kreuzlingen and then six times at Lucerne and ten goals on the tour in total.
The Hammers got their own back on the Swiss national team in May 1936, winning 1-0 in Zürich thanks to Len Goulden’s strike, and also scored victories over Kreuzlingen (2-0) and Aarau (4-2), with Jimmy Ruffell on target in both games, but Lausanne proved too strong, defeating their English visitors 1-0.
West Ham celebrated the end of the Second World War with yet another trip to Switzerland in May 1946, when they went unbeaten in seven matches, scoring 33 goals and conceding just seven, including nine in a 9-1 win in Schaffhausen, with Archie Macaulay helping himself to a hat-trick in front of 4,500 spectators.
Servette became the first Swiss visitors to east London when they formed the opposition for a floodlit friendly at the Boleyn Ground on 6 April 1954. A crowd of 20,000 saw Doug Arnott score a hat-trick and Jim Barrett and John Dick also find the net in a 5-1 win.
The Hammers’ next meeting with Swiss opposition was their most important, as they took on Lausanne in a European Cup Winners’ Cup third-round tie in March 1965. Ron Greenwood’s side scored a 2-1 win at the Stade Olympique, with Johnny Byrne and Brian Dear getting the goals, before the Irons completed a 6-4 aggregate win with a 4-3 success at the Boleyn Ground, where Dear scored twice, Martin Peters once and Ely Tachella put through his own net.
The same club welcomed West Ham to Switzerland for a pre-season match in August 1966, which ended in a 2-2 draw, before the Irons returned to the country the following June to beat Saturday’s opponents Grasshoppers Zürich 1-0 and Lugano 4-1.
After a break of two decades, West Ham were back in Switzerland in July 1987, when John Lyall’s squad beat Servette 3-1 in Geneva.
And it was 24 years before the Irons returned to the country, in July 2011, when Sam Allardyce began his reign as manager at the Uhrencup in Grenchen. However, the trip ended in two 2-1 defeats, by Young Boys and FC Basel.
West Ham’s most-recent visit to Switzerland was in July 2018, when Manuel Pellegrini’s spell in charge began with a 3-2 defeat by FC Winterhur at the fabulously named Stadion Schützenwiese.
In terms of players, West Ham’s first Swiss international was the all-action midfielder Valon Behrami, who joined the Irons from Italian club Lazio in 2008 and spent two-and-a-half years in east London before returning to Serie A with Fiorentina.
The second was Edimilson Fernandes, another central midfielder, who arrived from Sion in 2016 and spent two seasons at London Stadium, scoring a memorable winner in an EFL Cup victory over Chelsea in October 2016, before being loaned to Fiorentina and then joining German club Mainz on a permanent basis in 2019. He is now with Young Boys in Bern.
Most recently, striker Albian Ajeti was signed by Pellegrini at the start of the 2019/20 season, but departed for Scottish club Celtic, having failed to score. He is now back in Switzerland with Basel.
West Ham has also been represented by Fabio Daprela, who played eight times at full-back under Gianfranco Zola during the 2009/10 season. Goalkeeper Raphael Spiegel, who was a reserve-team regular but never made a competitive appearance, faced West Ham for Winterthur in the aforementioned friendly.
The women’s team have had two Swiss players, with forward Alisha Lehmann scoring 14 goals in 59 games between 2018 and 2021, starting the 2019 Women’s FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, while fellow international Seraina Piubel joined from FC Zürich Frauen in September 2024.
