Veteran Chapuisat joins Young Boys

Chapuisat is trading his blue-and-white shirt for a yellow-and-black one Keystone

Stéphane Chapuisat, one of Switzerland's most successful strikers, has joined Young Boys Bern in what is likely to be the last signing of his career.

Chapuisat signed a three-year contract with the club on Sunday. The 32-year-old striker spent the last three seasons with Grasshoppers Zurich, but the team’s management decided not to renew his tenure, preferring to invest in younger players.

Chapuisat helped Grasshoppers win their last title in 2001, finishing equal best scorer in the league. During his three seasons in Zurich, he beat opposition goalkeepers 44 times.

The player’s new contract allows him to retire whenever he wants to. Once he leaves the field, he will promote the new Wankdorf stadium, under construction in Bern, for the remainder of his contract.

The 84-time international began his top division career in Lausanne, before heading to Germany. He spent his first season there with Bayer Uerdingen, before being snapped up for the next seven with Borussia Dortmund.

Dortmund was to prove the most successful stretch of Chapuisat’s career, with two domestic titles in 1995 and 1996, and a win in the European Champion’s League in 1997.

Chapuisat, with 106 goals, was the most successful foreign goal-scorer in the German league until last March, when Bayern Munich’s Giovanni Elber broke his record.

Chapuisat comes from a football family. His father, the coach of Yverdon in the second division, is a former international himself and spent part of his career playing in France.

swissinfo with agencies