Middlesbrough is once again looking for a new head coach, and Raphael Wicky has been mentioned as a possible contender. Rob Edwards has already been confirmed as Wolves’ next manager.

Teesside is injured.

After all, the person who spoke so highly of the town, its residents, and the football team he signed a three-year contract with both before and after arriving has betrayed the confidence that chairman Steve Gibson and the supporters placed in him, as well as the words he used to explain the opportunity that had been presented to him.

But Teesside is also agitated, and Edwards’ actions unintentionally created an environment for fan pride and fervor that hasn’t been witnessed at the Riverside in many years. The scenes before, during, and after the game against Birmingham City are unquestionably proof of that.

Whichever candidate is fortunate enough to be hired as Boro’s head coach will take over a team that is obviously capable of making a significant Premier League promotion push this season, a chairman who will support his man in the dugout in the transfer market, and a supportive fan base. The team currently sits second in the Championship.

Raphael Vicky is mentioned as one of the candidates for the Riverside position, but who is he and why may Middlesbrough be considering him? Football League World looks into…

Raphael Wicky’s playing career as a candidate for head coach of Middlesbrough
Wayne Rooney of England is chasing Raphael Wicky of Switzerland.
After completing Sion’s academy system in 1993, Wicky joined the Rhône valley-based club in his home country of Switzerland to start his professional playing career.

He would stay with Sion until 1997. He was a tough defensive midfielder by profession, but he was also a player who could play wherever in defense.

In addition to helping the team win the Swiss Cup three times in a row from 1994 to 1997, he would go on to capture the Swiss Championship championship here in 1996–97.

He earned the first of his 75 caps for Switzerland in 1996 during this prosperous time, and he went on to play for his country at the 2006 World Cup, Euro 96, and 2004.

Tottenham’s Raphael Wicky and Liverpool’s Steve McManaman

He left Swiss football in 1997 after more than 130 games for Sion to join Werder Bremen of the German Bundesliga.

During his first two seasons with the team, Wicky made over 60 Bundesliga games and established himself as a key member of the first team.

Although his team lost both of the German Cup finals he helped Bremen reach, he was able to win the now-defunct UEFA Intertoto Cup, a summer tournament between European clubs.

Wicky would sign for Atletico Madrid, another major European team, in January 2001. At that time, they were competing in the second division of Spanish football and weren’t as dominant as they are now.

Wicky would only play for the club for 13 games in all competitions before returning to the Bundesliga in December of the same year and joining Hamburg, thus his time in Madrid would be short.

Up until the summer of 2007, Wicky would stay with Hamburg and continue to prove himself as a great performer in the German top division.

Along with helping the team win the now-defunct DFL-Ligapokal in 2003—a preseason cup competition between the top five teams from the previous season and the German Cup winners—he would also win the UEFA Intertoto Cup a second time in 2005.

Wicky made more than 160 games for Hamburg before rejoining Sion in 2007 to complete a full circle transfer.

However, he would only play a few games for them before joining Chivas USA, an MLS team, in 2008. He would eventually hang up his boots with the team in March 2009.

The coaching career of Raphael Wicky: he has Champions League experience

Raphael Wicky, coach of the BSC Young Boys, shakes hands with Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City.

After his playing career ended, he took on his first coaching position in 2009 as a youth coach at Thun, a Swiss club.

Servette and Basel would take on similar responsibilities over the ensuing years, and it was Basel who would advance through the coaching ranks from coach of the Under-18s in 2013 to being given his first management position in April 2017 after Urs Fischer left.

However, Wicky, who speaks four languages, would only be in charge of Basel for one full season after helping the team win the Swiss Super League in the last few games of the 16–17 season and winning the Swiss Cup against Sion of all teams.

In fact, his team’s 17/18 second-place result in the Swiss Super League was judged insufficient to retain him, and he would not coach again until March 2019.

His next opportunity came in March 2019, when he was appointed head coach of the USA Under-17 team. He left that position in December of the same year to take a position as head coach of the Chicago Fire, an MLS team.

But after two years in the “Windy City,” Wicky was fired after missing out on the MLS playoffs by only one point during a 2020 season marred by COVID-19. Wicky now desperately needed his next head coaching position to go smoothly.

Fortunately for him, when Swiss team Young Boys decided to take a risk on him in the summer of 2022, that’s exactly what occurred, and they won’t regret it.

Playing a style of football that combined attacking and high-intensity running and pressing with pragmatism in possession and defense, Wicky’s team won 21 of their 36 games and sprinted to the Swiss Super League title with 74 points in his debut season as manager. They also took home the Swiss Cup.

According to FotMob, his team led the league in goals per game (2.3), goals conceded per game (0.8), average possession (57%), clean sheets (13), shots on goal per game (6.1), and expected goals/xG (68.9). His two main strikers, Jean Pierre Nsame and Cedric Itten, scored 21 and 19 league goals, respectively, while operating almost exclusively out of a 4-4-2 diamond shape.

Despite having watched the team play in the Champions League against teams like Manchester City and RB Leipzig, and just weeks before the season ended with his team still leading the league, he was fired as Young Boys’ manager in March 2024. Joel Magnin, the team’s interim manager, then led the team to the championship.

Wicky has been a top candidate for recent openings at Sunderland, West Brom, and Rangers, respectively, suggesting that he is eager to return to work.

Wicky could therefore be a top-tier addition for Middlesbrough given his league and cup double in Switzerland, his domestic and international management experience in the USA, and his successful playing career for both club and country.