The 'Swiss Leicester' closing on their first title
Andres Gerber swims in Lake Thun, rain or shine, in honour of his late brother who died from cancer in 2021. The past five years have not been straightforward for the former Switzerland defender, but not just on a personal level. Since Gerber became president of Swiss side FC Thun in 2020, the club have gone from narrowly avoiding financial collapse to achieving promotion to the Swiss Super League.
Despite the vastly greater resources of FC Basel and BSC Young Boys, it is newly promoted Thun who sit 15 points clear at the top of the table with seven games remaining. "It's a bit like when Leicester won the Premier League," Gerber, who spent six years of his playing career at Thun, told BBC Sport. Based in a picturesque lakeside town of just 45,000 inhabitants and without a major trophy in their 128-year existence, Thun's likely title win will be one of the most remarkable in European football history.
Unless you are Swiss or have a particular interest in the country's football, it's unlikely you have heard of Thun or the town of the same name. Since 1898 the club have twice won the second division title and twice finished runners-up in the Swiss Cup. Many people in the region support 17-time Swiss champions and regular European participants Young Boys, who play 19 miles up the road in Bern.
Thun's previous greatest season came in 2004-05, when a second-placed finish secured a spot in the Champions League. A late Dennis Bergkamp goal denied Thun an unlikely point against Arsenal at Highbury on their group-stage debut, but the Swiss minnows still finished third in their group - above Czech giants Sparta Prague. Things went downhill thereafter.
A cup final defeat in 2019 was followed by relegation in 2020. Investments from Chinese multi-club owner Chien Lee and board member Beat Fahrni saved the club from extinction on several occasions, most recently in early 2024. Thun recovered from play-off final defeat in 2023-24 to win the Swiss Challenge League by 11 points last season and end a five-year spell in the second tier.