The fairy tale of the modest Thun: "We haven't prepared any party yet because it brings bad luck"

BarcelonaFC Thun is making history not only in the Swiss Super League, but in European football. The team where the Catalan Genís Montolio plays has been promoted to the First Division this very season and, far from settling in and playing it safe, has wanted to go a little further and establish itself as the undisputed leader of the competition. “It is a situation that nobody expected. Being first or even fighting for European places was almost unthinkable. I am valuing it very highly. Now that we see that we are close to achieving it, I enjoy it even more. It is a historic moment for the club and very important for the city [of less than 50,000 inhabitants]. I live it with enthusiasm and without pressure,” explains Genís in conversation with ARA. With twelve points advantage over the second, St. Gallen, with only six matchdays left – including those of the final phase – before the end of the competition, glory is within reach.

To find an equivalent in the Spanish context, what Thun did would be like Almeria finishing as league champions, ahead of Barça and Real Madrid. Although the most recent case we find is in England in 2016, when Leicester won the Premier League just the season after being promoted. “We have practically the same team as in the Second Division, with only three new signings. We are a group that has been playing together for years. The core has been maintained for two or three seasons, which is difficult nowadays. Furthermore, the coach has been at the club for several seasons now. Perhaps we don't play particularly spectacular football, but we are a very solid team: we all know what we have to do and the coach's message has really resonated with us. There has also been an element of luck and players who have taken a step forward this season,” admits the Barcelona-born centre-back.

One of the names that makes this season so magical is precisely that of Genís. He arrived in Switzerland five years ago and is now completing his third season at Thun. Although it could now be said that everything is going smoothly for him, he was on the verge of retiring from football because playing no longer motivated him as it did before. “It was a curious story. I was about to quit football because I felt I had reached my limit. I spoke to my agent and told him that if no project that excited me came up before Friday, I would quit. Just that same Thursday or Friday, he called me with an offer to go to Switzerland, to Tercera. The conditions were not very good, but it sparked my curiosity to try an experience abroad. The first year was very hard personally, even though it went well football-wise, and that encouraged me to continue,” he explains.

He went from playing in the Segunda RFEF with Olot to the Swiss Third Division with Z\u00fric's reserve team, one of the most historic Swiss clubs. Despite this, the start was not as expected and he considered at one point throwing in the towel and returning to Barcelona. “The club didn't help me much with life off the pitch. I lived in a rented room at an old man's house, an hour and a half by car – or two hours by public transport – from the training ground. Furthermore, there was the change of language, culture, and climate. In winter it is very cold, it snows often and you can go weeks without seeing the sun. I was alone and had left my wife and family in Spain. It was tough, but the fact that I could grow as a footballer helped me to endure”, explains Genís. Fortunately, he was resilient and conversations with his wife and family also helped that today he is completing one of his best seasons on a personal level and the best in the history of the modest Thun.

A fighter in the middle of the Alps

To break the hegemony of Basel and Young Boys, Thun has not had to change its playing style much either, where it opts for tactics patented by Diego Simeone with Atlètic de Madrid. Mauro Lustrinelli, current coach of Genís, prefers to keep a clean sheet than to win by a large margin, although he perfectly combines both. He plays with a 4-4-2 with a low block, waiting for the right moment to launch a lethal counter-attack. “His discourse is very «match by match», very much in line with what is often said about cholisme. He is a very passionate person, who lives football with a lot of emotion and transmits a lot to the locker room. His talks are motivating and he always insists that no one can beat us in ambition and desire. The message remains the same: focus only on the next match and don't look beyond,” explains Genís about his coach. The Swiss coach has been managing Thun for four seasons, and ten years in which he has gone through almost all possible roles within the institution.

The Swiss team is already thinking about the last five duels, where from first to sixth place they will play another round to see who finally becomes champion. There is room to achieve an objective that seemed crazy. Even so, Montolio is clear, he does not want to get ahead of himself or organize any celebration. “We don't have any party planned yet because they say talking about it beforehand brings bad luck. If the moment comes, preparing one is done quickly,” he concludes, laughing.