The Boys in Green who made their mark in Switzerland

While he had made his debut for Manchester United as a teenager and had already made his mark with the Ireland team, the career of Don Givens was on the slide in 1981 when a new destination came calling.

After departing Sheffield United, who had just been relegated to the fourth tier of English football, the 31-year-old striker had employment offers from the USA and the Netherlands but an unexpected chance to join a relatively obscure club in Switzerland would bring the most enjoyable phase of his playing days.

Neuchatel had never won a major trophy or played in Europe before Givens’ arrival but that was about to change as he had played a central part to glory-filled six-year spell.

“I decided to move abroad after my spell with Sheffield United. For one thing, conditions for players in England was deteriorating,” he said of that 1981 move to Neuchatel Xamax, who had just qualified for Europe for the first time in their history.

That first season saw Givens and Neuchatel go on a remarkable run in the UEFA Cup, beating Sparta Prague, Malmo and Sporting Lisbon before losing 4-3 to SV Hamburg in the quarter-finals.

Givens scored his first European goal for them in a 3-2 defeat in the away leg where he profited from a slip by Franz Beckenbauer, whose own career was coming to a close.

Remarkably, they were a part-time side. “The coach, Gilbert Gress, and myself were the only full-timers,” he said. “I was the only full-time player, so we used to train at five o’clock when the boys would finish work.”

In six seasons there he savoured more European joy including a run to the UEFA Cup quarter-finals in 1986 where they were beaten 3-2 by a brilliant Real Madrid outfit and won the Swiss league – the only league title of his career – in 1987.

When he finished as a player, Givens was not done with the club and he was coaxed back in 1993 initially as a coach before briefly taking over as manager, following illustrious immediate predecessors Roy Hodgson and Uli Stielike.

Despite achieving his target of avoiding relegation Givens was let go, a decision he felt was harsh at the time. But he was honoured on his return to Neuchatel in 2002 when his Ireland U-21 side played there.

Not long after Givens left Switzerland, compatriot Liam Buckley arrived, joining Montreux Sports in 1987 after spells in Spain and Belgium.

Buckley played at the top level in those countries and while the part-time, second-tier side Montreux was a step down, he lasted two seasons there before a 1989 return to Ireland.

It would be a decade before another Irishman plied his trade in Switzerland again.

Bray native Ronnie O’Brien, who had made a headline-making move from Middlesbrough’s reserves to Juventus, was loaned out by the Italian giants four times, the first deal to Lugano in 1999 and he made five appearances in the Swiss top flight.

There was another long gap until another Ireland underage international was loaned out to a Swiss club.

In the summer of 2020 Connor Ronan signed a new long-term contract with Wolves and, having already had two loan spells in England and one in Slovakia, was sent away again, this time to Grasshoppers Zurich.

The once-mighty club were then in the second tier but Ronan adapted well to life in Zurich and the challenge, despite the early blow of an injury in his first game, a pre-season friendly, which ruled him out for a month.

He came back and made 32 appearances to leave them top of the division with two games to go, when he broke a bone in his foot against Winterthur and was sidelined for five months.

They would win promotion, despite missing Ronan for the run-in and he’s fondly remembered there for his efforts in that successful promotion push. Now 26, Ronan is in the USA with Colorado Rapids.

The latest Irishman to try his luck in Swiss football is striker Armstrong OkoFlex. The Dublin-born winger had spells on the books of Arsenal, Celtic and West Ham but had played little first-team football when he opted for a move abroad last summer, after being released by the Hammers, and landed up at FC Zurich on a two-year deal.

It has not been easy as he has started just one league game (plus 11 sub appearances) this season.

Zurich are in fourth place in the league with little chance of challenging the top two of Young Boys and Servette but they should qualify for Europe and the club say they have long-term plans for the player who is still only 22 and still adjusting to life in a different environment.

“The cost of living is a bit different to what I’m used to. I haven’t really done much, the focus is on my training and settling in, but Zurich is a nice place,” he told the Irish Independent while on Ireland U-21 duty in October.

“The crowds are crazy. We played against Basel, there were 28,000 fans around the stadium, shouting, screaming, flares going off.

“The Ultras turn up every game whether you’re winning or losing. It’s really a big factor of me enjoying my time there.”