FC Baden 1897: raising and training talented young footballers

FC Baden 1897, 127 years of history, which is not a few that demonstrates the solidity and identity of the Swiss club founded thanks to the passion of some English employees of Brown Boveri & Cie AG, a well-known Swiss electrical engineering company founded in Baden in 1891. In those days, football was certainly a new thing in Aargau, but the enthusiasm of those youngsters gave rise to one of the oldest football clubs in Switzerland, and from the very beginning it has been active in training with the aim of promoting talented young people, but also and above all the integration, sociability and individual growth of the boys and girls by involving them in the social life within the club.

Young people at the centre of the project

FC Baden 1897 is proudly a 'formation club'. More than 650 young people are involved in the Swiss club's sports project with more than 30 teams covering all age groups. From the youngest to the first team and a women's section that has been active in the club since the early 1970s. Many talents have grown up at the red and white football school and then continued their careers at the professional level in the Swiss top league and major European tournaments. One example: Silvan Widmer, Swiss national player, who played in the youth team of FC Baden 1897 before moving to Aarau, then to Italy, wearing the Udinese jersey for five seasons before returning to Switzerland with Basel and now in the Bundesliga with Mainz 05.

Or the two Swiss National Goalkeepers Jörg Stiel or Diego Benaglio started their career as juniors with Baden. 

Emotions at the ESP stadion

The 'home' of FC Baden is located in Fislisbach, a municipality in the district of Baden, where the Stadion Esp was opened in 1988 and which has since then hosted the home matches of the club from the East Aargau region. A ground on which, in recent years, the first team has experienced a number of thrills. In 2022, a year that coincided with the 125th anniversary of the Swiss club, FC Baden achieved the feat of gaining promotion from the 4th to the 3rd Swiss Division.  Not satisfied with that, in the following season and after an absence of 17 years, the Red and White returned to Switzerland's second most important professional league, the Challenge League, thanks to a brilliant placing in the standings. A confirmation that work, planning and commitment, in the end, contribute to the achievement of important goals.

A landmark where you can grow in sport

Commitment, inclusion, participation, social awareness: these are values that are very much present in the philosophy of FC Baden, which for 127 years has been committed to the healthy and conscious growth of children joining the football school. Values that Macron fully shares and supports in its relationship with its partner clubs. The collaboration between the Italian brand and the Swiss club started last year and since July 2023 30 teams, 21 of them youth teams, have taken to the pitch with the Macron Hero on their chests. 'Become your own hero' means hard work, sacrifice, the ability to face challenges while accepting defeats, but always looking ahead, growing in determination and knowing that the ultimate goal is always attainable. The results achieved by FC Baden with its boys are the best example of this philosophy.