I actually became part of that world back when I was hardly out of nappies – I was fascinated by football from a very early age. I didn’t realise professional football could be a way of life, though, and the football stars on TV seemed hopelessly out of reach.

At 11, FC Zürich spotted me during a match for my local club FC Stäfa. They invited me to a trial session and then let me join officially. I matured, felt the effects of the targeted support and heard more and more compliments about my development. Over time, my childhood dream became a realistic goal. So, I worked my way up the junior ranks – all the way to the top team. And when FC Zürich signed me as a professional player, my world finally revolved around nothing but football.

For me, there are two ways of looking at this: one as a junior player and one as a professional footballer. I actually became a top athlete at the age of 11 when I switched to FC Zürich. I had to prove myself every week, work on myself every day, make the leap to the next level after every season. In particular, I had to learn how to make sacrifices: in elite sport, there’s little room for anything else.

Becoming a professional athlete brought pressure from the public and the media, as well – and, of course, the awareness that football was my livelihood. Professional athletes represent a club, a city or even a country to the outside world, so lots of people have high expectations and scrutinise their every move. In other words, it takes perseverance, self-assurance and self-confidence to survive in this environment in the long term. I had to build up my inner resilience so I could deal with this enormous pressure. For top athletes, this also entails having to put all your doubts to one side week after week. After all, in elite sport, there’s not much time to reflect or call yourself into question.

When I reached the age of 25, I gradually stopped being one of those young players who still had a realistic chance of a lucrative move abroad. By then, my sporting prospects were starting to wane, so I wondered whether I could continue my career in football and what my path outside of the sport might look like. Three years later, I decided to change tack, bringing my career as a professional footballer to a close and starting to study business economics alongside my work at TBF.

I was often – and am often – asked: ‘Isn’t it difficult to gain a foothold in the world of work after being a top-level athlete?’ In fact, however, my sporting background didn’t hurt – quite the contrary: my mindset as an athlete still helps me enormously to this day. I have learnt to be resilient, especially because of my unique background, and to recognise and take advantage of new opportunities!

There are all kinds of parallels, but the biggest one is teamwork. Whether in sport or in your professional life, you face challenges as an individual, act as part of a team and achieve success together.

There is also a lot of overlap on a personal level – for example, the desire to constantly improve, and how you handle setbacks and feedback. These experiences had a huge impact on me as an athlete. Now, they help me to deal with challenges and people in a mindful way in my day-to-day work and enable me to make a valuable contribution.

Once I’d gained a foothold in my studies and professional life, I felt the need to use my passion for football to give something back. I was also ready for a new challenge. And so I’m now in my third year coaching talented youngsters at FC Zürich – where so much began. It gives me great pleasure to support talented young athletes in their development and to share my own experience about the journey to becoming a professional. But I don’t just want to convey a love of football to the kids in my team. I also want to show them that there are other ways to reach fulfilment – even outside of football. Because I firmly believe that elite sport teaches you a great deal of useful skills for life.