Opposition Check: Swift Hesperingen

The club looks back on a long history that dates back to the 1910s. Until the Second World War, Swift played in the third and fourth leagues, with the 1928/29 season being an exception when the team was promoted to the honorary promotion (second league).

In the post-war period, the team went through a development that took them from the fifth division in the mid-1960s to their return to honorary promotion in 1976. Just a few years later, the Red and Whites achieved their first promotion to the National Division, the highest league in Luxembourg. A milestone for Swift Hesperange was qualifying for the European Cup Winners‘ Cup in the 1990/91 season by winning the Coupe de Luxembourg against AS Differdange.

Since the 2020/21 season, Hesperange has been playing continuously in the BGL Ligue, as the top division has been officially called since 2009. As a promoted team, the team finished third in 2021, which qualified them to qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League. There the red and whites lost 0:1 and 1:1 to NK Domžale (Slovenia).

In the 2021/22 season, Swift Hesperange reached fourth place in the BGL League with a total of 60 points in 30 games. The next season the team won its first-ever championship title. “This first title will of course go down in history, it is extraordinary for the people who have been there for many years,” said Swift President Fernand Laroche at the time. At the end of the 2023/24 season, second place in the table was achieved, five points behind FC Differdingen 03.

The current squad includes numerous players who were already used in the 2022/23 championship year. They also include the offensive midfielder and captain Dominik Stolz, who scored 17 goals in 28 appearances in the BGL league in the 2023/24 season. The former SV Sandhausen footballer moved to Swift Hesperingen in 2020 and is one of the team’s most successful goalscorers.

This summer, four new players were signed by Swift: former Austrian youth international Anthony Schmid from SC Austria Lustenau, midfielder Eldin Cikotic from rivals FC Rodingen 91, Kobe Bohets from Jong KV Mechelen and Yanis Bouazzati from their own U19 team.

Last season in the Bundesliga, Anthony scored two goals in 16 games. With FC Lustenau he finished last in the table with two games won. In the 2023/24 season, Eldin Cikotic played 29 games for FC Rodingen. He scored three goals and prepared nine goals. 18-year-old Yanis Bouazzati will have the opportunity to prove himself in the top flight.

Emmanuel Da Costa has been the new head coach at Swift Hesperange since July 1st. The 46-year-old Frenchman can look back on a long-standing coaching career. In 2004 he started at CMS Oissel and has since gained experience in numerous French clubs. In the period from 2004 to 2020 he coached eight different clubs, the longest being the third division club US Quevilly (later also US Quevilly-Rouen Métropole). Most recently he was an assistant coach at AS Saint-Étienne in the second division in France.