Jonas Brunschwig understands why San Francisco soccer fans are disappointed by the World Cup teams playing at Levi’s Stadium starting this month. Spanish teen phenom Lamine Yamal won’t be there. The Bay Area didn’t even draw an aging, fading star like Argentina’s Lionel Messi or Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
“We’re not getting any of the big, historic teams,” Brunschwig, the consul general for Switzerland, told Gazetteer in an interview from his Pier 17 office. “I understand that people in the Bay Area feel like, ‘Oh, we’re not getting the superstars.’” He emphasized: “I think there will be great football on display in Santa Clara.”
An example of that greatness, according to Brunschwig: the Nati, short for Nationalmannschaft or the national team in German. (German is one of Switzerland’s four official languages.) On June 13, Switzerland plays Qatar in the first of six World Cup matches at Levi’s Stadium.
The Nati isn’t chopped liver. Ranked 19th in the world, Switzerland is the highest-rated team in its group. (The 48 national teams that qualified for the Cup are divided into twelve groups; the top two from each, along with the eight best third-place teams, advance to the next knockout round). Qatar is ranked 55th. The Nati’s star and team captain is Granit Xhaka, who has played for Europe’s top club teams.
When I observed that Xhaka didn’t sound like a traditional Swiss name, Brunschwig told me I had hit upon the Nati’s, and the country’s, unusual strength: its amalgamation of different nationalities. Xhaka is of Albanian descent, and many Nati players are from immigrant families. For decades, it has been one of the world’s most diverse national teams.
With its current roster, this World Cup “could be a golden generation moment for the Swiss team,” Brunschwig predicted.
The Swiss consulate in San Francisco assists approximately 34,000 Swiss citizens living in 13 western American states, making it the country’s largest consular district outside of Europe. Brunschwig is fluent in five languages, and said he grew up in “the forest” in remote Valcolla, an Italian region of Switzerland, where the Nati is called the Rossocrociati, or red crosses.
He typically spends his days deciphering the artificial intelligence industry, citing the example of what he called “consequential conversations” at the International Committee for the Red Cross about how AI is being used in warfare.
“Having in-depth exchanges with the actors that are developing the technologies that are then also deployed — in this case in conflict situations — is of great importance,” Brunschwig told me. “We are not the oracles here, but we try to report to decision makers in Switzerland.”
Brunschwig, who played soccer growing up, and also follows club leagues closely, has been delighted to add the Nati’s logistics to his bailiwick. On Tuesday, the team arrived in San Diego, where it will be based, staying at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar throughout the tournament, and training at the San Diego Jewish Academy. The Nati travels to the Bay Area June 12, the day before it plays Qatar. In its second match on June 18, Switzerland faces Bosnia and Herzegovina in Los Angeles.
Even with his boosterism, Brunschwig concedes the Nati isn’t considered a contender to win the World Cup championship. (The US has better odds.) That’s in part because it’s a small country of nine million people, and bordered by three soccer goliaths: Germany to the north; in the south, it’s Italy, which, despite its pedigree, has failed to qualify for the last three World Cups; and France (Mbappe!) to the east.
As much a factor is that while sports are important in Switzerland, the country doesn’t idolize athletes the way much of the rest of the world does, Brunschwig said. Sports, like politics, has its place. He drew an analogy to the way one might see Swiss President Guy Parmelin taking public commuter trains, and walking around Bern.
“Professional athletes kind of lead a fairly normal life,” he said, with one key exception, “unless you’re Roger Federer, of course.”
San Franciscans who take a pass on the World Cup are missing out, and not just because the Nati are coming, Brunschwig said. Paraguay, which plays the tournament opener in Los Angeles, and has two matches at Levi’s Stadium, is “underappreciated and underestimated, and can show up in a big way,” Brunschwig said. On June 19, Levi’s Stadium hosts Paraguay against Turkey, which features star striker Kenan Yıldız and midfielder Arda Güler, arguably the most talented players to take the field in Santa Clara.
Various Swiss groups around the Bay Area are hosting watch parties, including one at the Swiss Park Bar & Grille in Newark, and another in Mountain View. The Swiss consulate in San Francisco isn’t doing anything special. “I’ll be tied up, because I will be at the stadium,” Brunschwig said.
