The name Simon Sohm has recently gained somewhat of a buzz, especially after appearing in the UEFA Europa League Round of 32 against Napoli for the full 90.
I wouldn’t say it’s really quite an impressive performance, but at least he managed to avoid getting turned inside out and upside down by the brilliance of Napoli’s Diawara and Zielinski – despite failing to really assert his authority in the midfield.
But one thing for sure though is that he didn’t seem like just another ordinary teenage midfielder appearing in one of the biggest and the most prestigious competition in Europe. He seemed to have ‘the’ ability and ‘the’ mentality – that despite his complete lack of experience in top tier professional football, let alone in European competition – he could still see the game off and leave the field without getting red-faced.
His team ended up losing the game though, but they definitely didn’t go down without a fight.
Simon Sohm – probably won’t be the first name that’ll come to your head when you’re thinking about brilliant defensive midfielders in the recent days with much more popular names like Sandro Tonali, Weston McKennie, Declan Rice, Florentino Luis, Arne Maier, and even Matteo Guendouzi, being very much revelled and highly-touted by the media – while this young Swiss man is slowly making a name for himself in the Raiffeisen Super League.
He’s relatively new to the public eye anyway, only making his senior debut on the 28th of October 2018, coming in at the very last minute of the game in a 3-2 away loss at FC Sankt Gallen. Three days later, the 2001-born midfielder finally made his first start, playing the full 90 minutes in a Swiss Cup encounter against Red Star Zurich. He played the whole game as a defensive midfield in a 4-2-3-1 double DM formation, partnering with Hekuran Kryeziu.
The 17-year-old strong midfielder has made a total of 6 appearances for his club this season with around 317 minutes of playing time already in his pocket. As long as he keeps on giving 100% in every matches and training sessions, as well as keeping his level of fitness at the top – I have little doubt that opportunities will keep coming for him.
Simon Sohm has represented the youth selections of Switzerland from the U15 up to the U19, being a key member of the side, even captaining the U16, U17, and U18 teams on several occasions.
Standing at 1.88m (6’2) tall and with an excellent, lean but strong build, Sohm is able to outmuscle other midfielders in the field and win challenges both in the air and on the ground.
He is a great ball-winner, but what’s more impressive is his tactical intelligence – his awareness and reading of the game. He managed to make a lot of important interceptions, destroying attacks from the opposing team, and orchestrating attacks/counter attacks.
His passes are often accurate and perfectly-weighted and his creative mind as well as excellent vision, combined with excellent technical ability make him an excellent midfield playmaker.
He has quite a good control and seemed quite calm and confident with the ball.
Sohm also has a very good amount of pace. He didn’t seem very quick when starting his runs, but he looked quite fast when he’s into his stride. He also has a very good body balance and didn’t seem very bad at dribbling.
Another one out of his most impressive attributes is perhaps his stamina. He’s only 17, he’s already capable of performing his top level of football for the full 90, even in high-intensity matches such as the one that I’ve watched against Napoli.
He’s kind of a complete midfielder – not quite like Pogba – perhaps a bit similar to Axel Witsel from my perspective. I could be wrong of course, but the way both of them played is just quite similar.
Of course, he’s still very far from a finished product. He still has a long way to go, a lot more matches to play, many more experiences to collect. But from here on, I could see that this one is destined for greatness. Let’s just hope his career won’t be plagued by injuries or bad behaviour.
This article was published originally on football-wonderkids.co.uk
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