https://m.bild.de/sport/fussball/fussball/von-hannover-96-nach-australien-pirmin-schwegler-wechselt-nach-sydney-61901562.bildMobile.html

Extremely experienced and nice bloke is coming from Hannover 96. He definitely had a poorer second season at Hannover but they were all bad. Top football brain. 

Fantastic signing on paper.

Happy to answer any questions about him. He said in the article that he and his wife had a lifelong dream of living in Australia for a time. I'm glad he could see it happen. He's still very fit and able bodied.

Surprisingly only 14 caps for Switzerland but over 250 matches in the bundesliga. He's a defensive midfielder who'll unlikely go for goal. 

A back story about him is he was diagnosed with leukaemia at 18 months of age and given a low chance of survival only to pull through and has now lived a fantastic, healthy life. The documentary about it was good. 

Looks an absolutely amazing signing!

From the article:



Not sure what it means but it's German so it must be better

Ad blocker isn't allowing you to see the website. 

Thank **** he didn’t sign for Roar .... he’s 33 next March and these pages would be going into meltdown with Dads Army comments. 

On paper he looks good and no doubt on grass too, he almost looks the perfect HAL signing and should kill it over here ... 

So how would we work in partnership with Keanu Baccus?
Keanu scored a few goals this season from DM.
Babbel has said all season he wants players with the right mentality, so hopefully will form a good partnership with a fit Patrick Ziegler.
 Ziggy has a dual Aussie/German flags on transfermarkt so may be close to getting his Aussie passport despite Dutton' s best efforts to stop him and any supposed foreigner getting citizenship.

Schwegler is more like Valeri, Grella or Culina for the Roos. He stays deep and has a decent short passing game. He does like his backpasses. Team tactics will show whether he's instructed to attack or not. He generally went more forward at Hoffenheim and Frankfurt.

His corners and frees were so bad this season. Always about knee height. 

Don't know what to make of this signing. To old and slow I think for WSW.

I think we were in desperate need of a experienced defensive midfielder who was better known for his tackling ability, and ability to break down attacking plays, more so than being one of those gifted attacking mids that can go forward. 
I don't know anything about him and really hope he is this type of player to allow give Baccus more freedom to get up a little further. 

That's generally what he does. He slides in well and distributes the ball a lot. I'm sure the drop in pace will suit his aging. He's by no means a grey haired bloke on broken legs though. 

Has the A League ever signed anyone who has just completed a full Bundesliga season? Neidermeier was often injured I believe. I think Broich hadn't even played much before his move. 

Thanks for the info John 👍

Interesting they have announced this signing so early. Good on WSW for getting him early and giving themselves time to work with him. 
How often do we see club sign foreigners with 3 weeks to go until the season

That’s often not by choice though. It’s normally because other options have fallen through for both player and club. 

But yeah, great that he’s signed and will be here for Day 1 of preseason training. 

Looks promising. 

Thanks johnszaz for the intel.

Sounds like a good signing. We desperately need a midfield marshal to shore up the defensive side

Sounds very decent. 

He probably wanted it all sorted asap so he and his family could start getting organised

Looks a very decent signing

Looks like a good pick up for WSW