Xavier Hochstrasser

Xavier Hochstrasser

Personal information
Full name	Xavier Daniel Hochstrasser
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Position(s)	Defensive Midfielder
Team information
Current team	FC Luzern
Number	20
Youth career
1999–2003	FC Onex
2003–2005	Étoile Carouge
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2005-2006	Servette	26	(2)
2006–2011	Young Boys	123	(12)
2011	→ Padova (loan)	6	(0)
2011–	Luzern
International career‡
2007–2009	Switzerland U21	8	(2)
2009–	Switzerland	0	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 3 October 2010 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 28 July 2010

Xavier Daniel Hochstrasser (born 1 July 1988 in Onex, Switzerland), is a Swiss footballer who currently plays for FC Luzern as a defensive midfielder or a winger. He is known for his superb crossing and ability to set up goals, and specializes in corner kicks.

He has 8 caps and 2 goals for the Switzerland national under-21 football team, earning his first cap in 2007 and completing his transition to the senior level Switzerland national football team in October 2009, when he was called up to the squad that would be expected to take part in the exhibition games leading up to and the qualifying matches for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He was not used by coach Ottmar Hitzfeld for any of these games however, and duly failed to make the squad that took part in the tournament in South Africa in summer 2010.

Hochstrasser played both legs (a 3–2 home win in which he scored and a 4–1 away loss) of Young Boys' 2010–11 UEFA Champions League campaign against Tottenham Hotspur. They were knocked out by the club, emerging from the two games having amassed an aggregate score of 6–4 in Spurs' favor.

Youth career

Xavier enjoyed a productive and ultimately successful development into a senior player with BSC Young Boys, playing with the youth teams of his hometown club FC Onex and then later Etoile Carouge. Between 2005 and 2006, he also spent one year on the books of Swiss giants Servette, scoring 31 goals in 68 games whilst playing as a winger for their reserve team but failing to make the grade as a senior with the club.

BSC Young Boys

Xavier's form with Servette's B-team attracted the attentions of BSC Young Boys, who upon learning of Servette's plans to release him at the end of the 2005/2006 Super League season signed the teenager on a free transfer in June 2006. He made an instant impact, scoring a fine goal during only his fourth league appearance and finishing his début season with 1 goal from 17 Super League appearances, playing predominately as right winger, and an impressive tally of eleven assists. He would go on the better this in the 2009/2010 Super League season, when in just 34 matches he set up an incredible 15 goals for his team mates (the most assists by a single player in Europe that season) and also scored four himself in what still remains his most productive season to date.

Career Totals

Since his début season in the Swiss Super League with BSC Young Boys, Xavier has gone on to record the following totals, correct as of 4 October 2010:

Season	Domestic League Apps	Domestic League Goals	Domestic League Assists	Team
2006–2007	17	1	11	BSC Young Boys
2007–2008	29	2	9	BSC Young Boys
2008–2009	31	5	5	BSC Young Boys
2009–2010	34	4	15	BSC Young Boys
2010–2011	6	4	1	BSC Young Boys
TOTALS	117	16	41	BSC Young Boys

Personal

Xavier married his childhood sweetheart, Sarah (b. 1989), aged just 20. They have one child together, Tobias Matias (b. 2009).

Xavier's father Daniel Zaza (b. 1958) is of part Sami descent. Xavier also has an older brother, Steve (b. 1986), who plays for AC Ajaccio's reserve team in Corsica, France.