A former Swiss international is to lead Impact in 2013
Two weeks away from the opening of year two’s training camp in Montreal, a few days before the MLS Combine in Florida and just over a week before the 2013 SuperDraft in Indiana, the Quebec-based club announced very early Monday morning through a press release that 50-year-old Swiss national Marco Schallibaum is the new head coach.
The former international defender picked up 31 caps for the Swiss national team in the 1980s and played for Swiss clubs before transitioning to a head coaching position in the mid-1990s, but never leaving Switzerland, gravitating mostly towards the D2 and D3. He most recently was active as a FIFA coaching instructor in Mongolia, Qatar and South Korea after leaving his last position as interim head coach at Swiss D2 side FC Lugano.
That Swiss-Italian club was once owned by Giambattista Pastorello, father of (former?) agent Federico Pastorello, the man directly or indirectly responsible of the coming of several (if not most) European players in Montreal in 2012, including Felipe Martins and Dennis Iapichino who have both played for Schallibaum in Lugano.
'Schalli' kicked off his coaching journey in his homeland with D3 side Stade Nyonnais, before joining FC Basel’s staff between January 1998 and August 1999, where he was the interim head coach for a month. His true head coaching job in the Swiss top flight came with Young Boys. A few years later, one of his successors was Martin Andermatt, another candidate for the position in Montreal.
He then spent a season at the helm of Servette FC, another season with D3 club FC Concordia Basel, two months at FC Sion and just over a year at FC Schaffhausen (D3) and the same at AC Bellinzona, a team he also lead through two qualifying rounds of the UEFA Cup tournament before dropping its first round series to Turkish giant Galatasaray.
In 2011, after a year and a half without an official job, he took over the interim position in Lugano and he’s stay there a year.
Schallibaum twice led his clubs to the UEFA Cup tournament. In the summer of 2003, he was no longer Young Boys’ coach when it was ousted by Finland’s MyPa in the qualification round, while in following year, he concluded his association with Servette FC by being eliminated in the second qualifying round by Hungarian side Ujpest.
Interestingly a young Frenchman named Eric Hassli was beginning his stay with Servette during that European home and away series after being recently transferred from Neuchatel Xamax.
According to the Swiss media, Schallibaum was picked by Montreal over Andermatt, 61-year-old Bernard Challandes, a former U21 Swiss national team coach and another Swiss, 42-year-old Ciriaco Sforza who was dismissed in April 2012 by Grasshopper after a three-year spell at the helm.
The Impact organized a press conference on Tuesday afternoon (3 30 pm ET) to introduce Schallibaum to the Montreal media. Stay tuned for a special edition of SoccerPlus, to be recorded following that event with comments and reactions from Saputo Stadium.