The English Premier League obviously has a long tradition of bringing the best players across the world to the most competitive football league in the world. This leads to lots of players from different countries that want to leave their marks in this league, also from the beautiful little country of Switzerland.
That’s actually not a big surprise for football fans. Switzerland competes in almost every big tournament with their national team. So, why shouldn’t there be some players that are good enough to play in the Premier League? It’s definitely time to show especially the younger generations of readers how good some players have been and which Swiss players have been the best in Premier League history for now.
10. Remo Freuler (Nottingham Forest)
It was a close race for getting into our Top 10 and so it was for Remo Freuler. The Swiss international has been playing for Atalanta Bergamo for years and has been one of the most important players in these pretty successful years at the club. In 2022, Freuler decided to move to the Premier League and in particular Nottingham Forest.
Unfortunately, the team played a disastrous season and was close to relegation all season. Freuler was a regular starter right from the beginning and once he was the captain of the team too, but it was still tough for him and the team to manage the turnaround. In the last six matches, he actually lost his permanent place in central midfield and decided to leave the club as well as the Premier League after just one season.
Nottingham has been a tricky club in the past year, so his decision to join the club was a bit risky. Unfortunately, his time in the Premier League wasn’t as successful as he potentially dreamed of, but it was still an experience for him and the Premier League was able to watch one of the most consistent Swiss players of the last year play in their league.
9. Stephan Lichtsteiner (FC Arsenal)
One of the most prominent Swiss players in the Premier League was definitely Stephan Lichtsteiner. The right-back is a truly Swiss legend with more than 100 matches for the national team and was a regular starter in Turin and Rome for many, many years.
In his good old days, he decided to go to the Premier League and play for Arsenal. Simultaneously, this was already the third of five European top leagues that he was active in. A milestone for him, but he missed gaining much playing time. Instead, he became more or less a player that had to help out in multiple positions.
After just one year at Arsenal, Lichtsteiner left the club again and joined the German club Augsburg. This meant that he was playing in four of the five top leagues in the end, really inspiring. Towards the end of the season, he lost his starter position and retired after it. In every single club, there was high appreciation for him since he was always a true leader and helped coaches in tactical questions. Not a big surprise, that Lichtsteiner became a coach directly after his career as a player.
8. Johan Djourou (FC Arsenal; Birmingham City)
Our next player is definitely someone that could have become a player with the description world-class. Instead, he never really reached his full potential and became a player that will always be connected with the downfall of the German club Hamburger SV.
In 2003, Johan Djourou joined Arsenal’s academy, with a promotion to the professionals only one year later. Arsenal definitely saw something special in the central defender and developed him smoothly. Unfortunately, some things just didn’t want to work.
After a couple of seasons and some excellent matches too, Djourou had to leave the club on loan first and after two loans on a permanent basis. Injuries, high competition and his stagnation in development prohibited a future at Arsenal. Afterward, his career never really reached a peak again, and he finally retired in 2021 after his last club in Denmark.
7. Valon Behrami (West Ham United; FC Watford)
It’s definitely interesting that the next player on this list has a connection with Hamburger SV too. Valon Behrami joined the Bundesliga club for just one season and was close to the first ever relegation of this club too, which could be prohibited last second.
In this case, it would definitely not be fair to reduce Valon Behrami for this bad season. Overall, Behrami has been a strong player that proved himself in different clubs like Lazio Rome, West Ham United, Fiorentina, Napoli and Watford. At the same time, Behrami was a massively important player in the national team of Switzerland.
Even though Valon Behrami was never playing for a top club in the Premier League, the central midfielder has been an interesting player to watch and was crucial for the team’s performances in most of his clubs.
6. Philippe Senderos (FC Arsenal; FC Everton; FC Fulham; Aston Villa)
Another Swiss talent, another transfer to Arsenal and another player that suffered a lot from injuries. Philippe Senderos was a highly rated central defender back in summer 2023. That’s why Arsenal decided to go for and sign him, which wasn’t a cheap deal back in time.
As long as Senderos was fit and Wenger decided to trust him, Senderos mostly played fairly good matches and established himself in the team. However, Senderos could unfortunately never play more than 20 Premier League matches per season in around five years at Arsenal. That’s why he left the club on two loans to Milan as well as Everton and left the club on permanent transfer in 2010.
Unfortunately, Senderos was facing different and some really serious injuries after that. His career could have been massive and he was still having fairly good matches, on club level as well as in the national team, but he never reached his full potential and retired in January 2020 after his last club Chiasso.
5. Fabian Schär (Newcastle United)
Now we’re getting to the Top 5 players and Fabian Schär definitely needs to be on that list. In early years, it was already apparent that this young man had quite a high potential. After his transfer from Wil to Basel in summer 2012, Schär became a starter at the Swiss club immediately. He was also part of the sensational team that reached the semi-finals of the Europa League in 2013.
Of course, no one believed that this talented young player was going to stay long at Basel. In 2015, he joined the German club Hoffenheim, but left it again after a first descent and a disastrous second season. After playing one season in Spain for the famous club Deportivo La Coruña, Newcastle decided to sign Schär and the former Swiss international is still part of the club.
Actually, Schär became one of the leaders and most important players of Newcastle for years. Thanks to his mentality and leadership, Schär is the perfect player for Eddie Howe and was always a serious thread for opponents too. Now, his contract is expiring at Newcastle and since he seems to lose his starter position, it could be his last season in the club, where he developed himself to a true legend.
4. Xherdan Shaqiri (Stoke City; FC Liverpool)
One of the most successful Swiss players in history is and will probably always be Xherdan Shaqiri. The technically highly gifted winger and offensive midfielder won several titles with Basel, Bayern Munich as well as Liverpool and is currently having a good time in Basel too.
Now you would probably ask us why Shaqiri isn’t ranked even better in our list and there is definitely one clear and sad answer to that: Shaqiri was never a regular starter at Bayern Munich or Liverpool. Instead, the left-footed creative midfielder was always a quite effective joker and therefore an important player for both teams.
This should definitely not harm Shaqiri’s career, which has been great though, and he was always having a quite strong impact in the teams he played. A fantastic player, a leader and always a true joy to watch.
3. Manuel Akanji (Manchester City)
Another outstanding player is definitely Manuel Akanji and instead of Shaqiri, he was on the pitch while Manchester City managed to win the biggest title of their club’s history, the Champions League trophy.
If you had asked some Dortmund fans about his transfer to Manchester, not most but lots of them seemed to be happy about the departure of the central defender. Instead, some experts and analysts were seeing a superb transfer for the English club and this turned out to be the case.
Manuel Akanji became a perfect fit for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola’s playing style. The defender earned his spot in the starting eleven and not only became an important player for his team but also one of the best defenders in the whole Premier League. In September 2025, Akanji left Manchester on loan and directly established himself at Inter in the Serie A.
2. Granit Xhaka (FC Arsenal; AFC Sunderland)
On the second place is another special player that was also playing lots of career in the Bundesliga: Granit Xhaka. On the first sight, you might be questioning yourself why Xhaka is the second-best Swiss Premier League player, but there are definitely plenty of reasons for this.
Despite lots of critics, Xhaka was always an extremely important and still underrated player for Arsenal. If Xhaka was fit enough to play, then he also played in the end and was mostly a starter too. He won four titles with the club and was football of the year at Arsenal for two times.
After winning the Bundesliga title with Leverkusen and the departure of Xabi Alonso, Xhaka decided to join the Premier League once more. He was transferred to Sunderland, which was a bit surprising to see. From the second-best team in the Bundesliga to a promoted team, it felt a bit weird for people from outside.
In Sunderland, Xhaka demonstrates in nearly every single match how important he is for the performance of a team. The central midfielder impresses with his presence, his leadership as well as his kind of playing, and Sunderland profits a lot from this. So far, the club is playing a wonderful season and Xhaka is clearly one of the reasons for that.
- Stephane Henchoz (Blackburn Rovers; FC Liverpool; Wigan Athletic)
The first place in our list was reserved right from the beginning and no other player was able to get ahead of him. Stéphane Henchoz is probably a player that not too many of the younger football fans may have heard of and who might be a bit confused right now.
Henchoz was not just part of the Swiss national team and playing in an average team. Instead, he was part of golden times in Liverpool. During his time there, Henchoz played a crucial role in the club’s success and managed to win the Champions League, European Supercup, the old UEFA Cup, and four other cups with Liverpool as well as another one with Blackburn Rovers.
Henchoz himself wasn’t sitting on the bench or something, the defender was a regular starter and played more or less every single match until the very end. This led to two individual awards for him, since he became Liverpool’s player of the year two times in a row.
Another honorable mention is the fact that Henchoz is still the Swiss player with the most matches in the Premier League. This record could be broken bei Granit Xhaka this season though.
Switzerland as an interesting market for the Premier League
The Swiss Super League was always a nice market for fascinating and comparable cheap youngsters. In the past, lots of players from Switzerland made the next step into the Serie A or the Bundesliga, but those players should be interesting for Premier League teams too.
At the moment, the league is having lots of young players with interesting profiles and high potential again. Players like Mattia Zanotti, Alvyn Sanches, Jaouen Hadjam, Marvin Keller, Jonas Adjetey, Jeremy Agbonifo or Cheveyo Tsawa will definitely make the next steps of their careers soon and in that case, some of English teams should definitely enter the market and be open for some exciting players.
This is the reason why a look into the Swiss market could still be interesting for many clubs not only in the Bundesliga but also in the Premier League and others. Watching exciting players playing in tight matches and potentially having a bet on one of the teams or someone winning the title could be quite fun. In terms of betting, it’s of course beneficial to get a feeling about sports betting in Switzerland first. If that has been done, there is no point in not enjoying the Swiss Super League.
