Fabian Schar named to World Cup squad for Switzerland

Fabian Schar has been called-up by Switzerland to be part of their squad in the 2022 World Cup. A staple of the Swiss international team for the past decade, this could be Schar’s last time participating in the biggest of football tournaments as he will be turning 31 years old two days after the tournament’s final.

The Magpie center-back had his international debut nearly 10 years ago when he appeared in a friendly match against Brazil all the way back in Aug. 2013 at the ripe age of 21. It’s been nearly a decade since that day, but since Schar got called up for the first time he’s maintained a high-level status among his Swiss peers.

Schar debuted as a substitute but he hit the ground running starting on his second cap (against Iceland) as he started that game and all others he played since then until he logged an off-the-bench app in 2018 in a friendly against Panama.

The veteran international has racked up 72 fights already bagging 8 goals over those matches. He’s only been subbed in five times (thus, starting 67 games of his total 72) while getting subbed off seven times.

Switzerland’s full list of players includes multiple Premier League names, those of Kevin Mbabu, Manuel Akanji, Remo Freuler, Denis Zakaria, Granit Xhaka, and of course Schar among them.

The Swiss will face Brazil, Serbia, and Cameroon in the group stage. The former two nations already got drawn with Switzerland in the previous World Cup held in Russia back in 2018. The Swiss are not one of the favorites to make a deep, contending run, but they have always sort of outperformed the expectations painting the faces of bigger and more renowned nations yearly.

Switzerland has played eight games this calendar year with back-to-back victories over Portugal (1-0) and Spain (2-1) in June and September respectively. The Swiss are coming off another win (2-1 against the Czech Republic) in their most recent game before the World Cup and enter the tournament on a three-game winning streak.