Marco Zwyssig (born 24 October 1971) is a Swiss former professionalfootballer who played as acentre-back. He is best remembered for his time atFC St. Gallen andFC Basel. He also played for theSwitzerland national football team. Following his retirement from active football Zwyssig works partly independently, partly as a course leader and lecturer in adult education.

Zwyssig played his youth football withFC St. Gallen coming through the ranks up to their U-21 team. In 1992, as he started studying business economics, he left the club and joined local amateur clubFC Gossau in the third tier of Swiss football. Here he played as centre back directly behind player-coachRoger Hegi. They were champions of group 4 and, after the play-offs, accieved promotion at the end of the 1992–93 season.^[1] After two years in the second tier, Gossau suffered relegation, but in the following 1995–96 season again won the group 4 championship and again achieved promotion in the play-offs.^[2]

At this pointFC St. Gallen hired Hegi, who had retired from his active playing career, as their new head-coach. Hegi persuaded Zwissig to come with him to play with St.Gallen in the1996–97 Nationalliga A. He did, signing a semi-professional contract and he achieved to become a regular player immediately. After graduating in 1997, he signed his first professional contract.^[3] Under Hegi's successorMarcel Koller, Zwyssig remained regular starter and in the1999–2000 Nationalliga A they won the Swiss championship. Thus, they qualified for the next season'sChampions League third qualifying round, but here they were beaten 4–3 on aggregate byGalatasaray. St. Gallen continued in theUEFA Cup first round, beatingChelsea 2–1 on aggregate they advanced to the second round, but were beaten 3–2 on aggregate byClub Brugge.^[4]

Zwissig then moved toAustrian Bundesliga clubWacker Tirol in 2001, where he won the Austrian championship in their2001–02 season. Zwyssig had experienced a difficult time in Innsbruck. At first the wages were not paid on time and then not paid at all. Wacker Tirol filed bankruptcy and they were forced to sell their most valuable players; Zwyssig inevitably left the club in the winter break of that season. Unavoidably, he had to take legal action against them.^[5]

Zwyssig signed forFC Basel in January 2002 and the FCB management transferred CHF 1.5 million as a transfer fee to the Austrians. He joined Basel's first team during their2001–02 season under head coachChristian Gross. After playing in three test games Zwissig played his team debut in theSwiss Cup game on 17 February 2002 as Basel won 1–0 againstColombier.^[6] He played hisdomestic league debut for the team one week later in the away game in theCornaredo as Basel won 5–2 againstLugano.^[7] Ironically, he scored his first goal for his new team on 4 April in the away game in theEspenmoos as Basel won 3–1 against his former clubSt. Gallen.^[8] Basel won the last game of the season, on 8 May 2002, and became champions ten points clear at the top of the table. Just four days later they played in the cup final againstGrasshopper Club winning 2–1 in extra time they won the double.^[9]

Basel's2002–03 UEFA Champions League season started in the second qualifying round. After beatingŽilina 4–1 on aggregate andCeltic on the away goals rule after a 3–3 aggregate, Basel advanced to thegroup stage. They ended this in second position behindValencia, but ahead ofLiverpool andSpartak Moscow to advance to thesecond group stage. They ended this in third position behindManchester United andJuventus, but ahead ofDeportivo La Coruña. Zwyssig played in 12 of these 16 games.^[10] Basel ended theirleague season as runners-up, but in the cup they advanced to the final and here they beatXamax 6–0 to defend the title.^[11]

As cup winners Basel were qualified for theUEFA Cup first round and here they beatMalatyaspor 3-2 on aggregate due to the silver goal rule. However, in the second round they lost both games againstNewcastle United. Zwissig played in all four games.^[12] In their2003–04 league season the team started well, winning their first 13 matches straight out. The first defeat came on matchday 24. Basel won the championship with 26 victories and seven draws, the team had suffered just three away defeats, and obtained 85 points. Zwissig had 30 appearances in the 36 fixtures. However in the cup the team were eliminated early, in round three, Zwissig scored a goal in the first round againstFC Alle and in the second round againstUrania Genève Sport.^[13]

As reigning Swiss champions, Basel entered2004–05 UEFA Champions League in the third qualifying round, however, drawn againstInternazionale, who won the qualifier 5–2 on aggregate. Basel subsequently dropped into the2004–05 UEFA Cup. BeatingTerek Grozny in the first round, Basel qualified for the group stage. A 1–1 draw away againstSchalke 04 was followed by a home defeat againstHearts. But with two victories, 2–1 away againstFerencvárosi TC and 1–0 at home againstFeyenoord, saw Basel rise to third place in the group table and advance to the knock-out stage. In the round of 32 in the2004–05 UEFA Cup, a home game in theSt. Jakob-Park on 17 February 2005, Basel played a goalless draw againstLille OSC, but the return leg were defeated 2–0 and were eliminated.^[14] Basel completed all the2004–05 Super League season's seventeen home games undefeated, winning thirteen and drawing four. They ended the season as Swiss champions with 10 points advantage over second placedThun.^[15] In the first round of the 2004–05Swiss Cup Basel played away against local amateur club FC Oberdorf winning 4–0. In the second round they beat lower league teamMeyrin 3–1. But in round three they facedThun. Following a 1–1 draw after extra time, Basel lost the penalty shoot-out 4–3.^[16]

At the end of the season Zwissig retired from his active football career. He played a total of 173 games for Basel scoring a total of five goals. 93 of these games were in theSwiss Super League, 14 in theSwiss Cup, 23 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and UEFA Cup) and 43 were friendly games. He scored three goals in the domestic league and two in the cup.^[17]

He played for the national team between 2000 and 2004 but never really broke into the first team due to the amount of competition for places. He got 20caps and 1 goal and was an unused substitute at the2004 European Football Championship.

Zwyssig studied business economics with a focus on marketing at theUniversity of St. Gallen and graduated in 1997. Following his retirement from active football Zwyssig worked partly independently, partly as a course leader and lecturer in adult education. On 11 June 2021 theASF-SFV announced that as of 1 July 2021 Zwyssig would be the Footeco boss for the Zurich and St.Gallen regions and is responsible for the development, support and observation of players and coaches at Footeco and U-15 level.^[18]

Gossau

• Promotion toNationalliga B: 1992–93, 1995–96

St.Gallen

• Swiss Super League:1999–2000

Wacker Tirol

• Austrian Bundesliga:2001–02

Basel

• Swiss Super League:2001–02,2003–04,2004–05
• Swiss Cup: 2002–03,

• Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.ISBN 978-3-7245-2305-5
• Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage

• Marco Zwyssig at National-Football-Teams.com