FC Basel’s Remo Gaugler: “The most important quality is getting on with people and leading them.”

Remo Gaugler is Head of Academy at one of Switzerland’s leading football clubs, FC Basel. Prior to working in his current position, he was involved with youth football at the club for many years and also had a spell as sporting director at FC Luzern. In this video he gives a comprehensive insight into his role, how he sees success both in the short and the long-term, and how he integrates key footballing principles and sub-principles into training processes to help players make the transition from youth to senior football.

Some of Gaugler’s key areas of responsibility include:

• Managing everything from the U15s to U21s with an interface to the talent manager and looking towards the first team;

• Being the lead for all grassroots and women’s football;

• Leading the Footeco.

Part 1: Gaugler’s role and pathway into the job
In the first part of the interview, Gaugler describes his current role. He spent most of his time working in FC Basel’s youth system and also had a short period as Sporting Director at FC Luzern. Gaugler then goes on to explain what his role at the academy entails and who he has working under him to support the club at the grassroots level, the women’s level and throughout the youth system. He also mentions that as there are so many pathways into his job, it could be beneficial to academy managers if they received training on the essentials of leadership.

Part 2: Player progression through the youth system
In the second part of the interview, Gaugler begins by discussing the qualities necessary to become the head of an academy. He then goes on to explain how important scouting is to helping as many players as possible make it through to the next level of the youth system, keeping things fresh and enabling the top talent to improve. Gaugler believes that for players to move from youth to senior football, the head coach of the first team must really engage with the system and support and develop players on an individual basis so they can make that step up to the first team. He points out that ultimate success is when numerous home-grown players from FC Basel are transferred to the top five leagues in Europe.

Part 3: FC Basel’s academy principles
In the final part of the interview, Gaugler highlights some of the principles of the academy which are essential and non-negotiable. These principles are emphasised and coached all the time so they are internalised in players’ heads throughout the academy’s pathway. He explains that there are also sub-principles which are adjusted to the playing style, the coach, the quality of the team and the individual positions. These sub-principles are for the detailed principles of play, which are recorded in more detail and regularly integrated into training processes. To end the interview, Gaugler picks up on the trend towards more individuality in training. Whilst he recognises football demands individual skills and abilities in the profiles of players, he still sees football as a team game with 11 players on the pitch who have to find collective solutions for attacking and defensive situations.