How Swiss can you get? Ex-Arsenal defender trains in watchmaking
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Reading Time: 2min | Tue. 16.03.21. | 18:13
Former Switzerland international Stephan Lichsteiner needed to find something to do after his football career has ended so he started making wristwatches
For years his job included running, jumping, tackling and kicking in front of thousands of people watching from the stands and many millions cheering in front of their television sets but these days Stephan Lichsteiner goes to work where he has to sit still and combine tiny pieces that will form a quality Swiss wristwatch. Footballers generally have a hard time adjusting to life when all that goes with professional game becomes a part of their past.
Often you hear about former starts turning to alcohol, making poor business decisions, suffering mental health issues as a result of drastic changes in their lives or simply remain in football in some capacity. Not Stephan, though. He is calm as he can be, training for a job that requires utmost precision and skill.
"If you are a banker... you can do that all your life, but if you are a footballer once you hit your mid-30s, you have to find something else to do. I still want to be productive."
⌚???????? Former Switzerland captain Stephen Lichtsteiner, who made 108 appearances for the Swiss national side, is training to be a watchmaker and has started an internship at Zurich firm Maurice de Mauriac. Life after ⚽️pic.twitter.com/6RcnWFFCl1
— Philip Alimo (@alimo_philip) March 16, 2021
Quality wristwatches are one of the symbols of Switzerland, the country Lichsteiner represented in three World Cups. Today, he is enjoying in doing something different but he still sees links between football and his new calling.
"I see some similarities to football. In football, if not all the team is perfect you will not win. It's the same with a watch, if everything is not perfectly in place the watch is not going to work."
Lichsteiner represented his country 108 times in a professional career that lasted 19 years. After playing for Grasshoppers in his homeland, he had a stint with LOSC Lille in France that got him a transfer to SS Lazio in Italy. After three years in the capital, he moved to Juventus and enjoyed a highly successful spell in Turin – a period in which he won seven Scudettos in as many seasons. After a year each at Arsenal and Augsburg in Germany, Stephan called it a day in 2020 and turned to a whole new challenge.
The time waits for no man, but this man waited a long time to start making watches.
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