What better way for Granit Xhaka to mark the first anniversary of his move to Bayer Leverkusen than a quarter-final with England and a duel with Declan Rice, the £100million man who has taken his place in Arsenal‘s midfield?
Things could hardly have worked out better for Xhaka since his exit from north London, winning the German double and reaching the Europa League final, now leading Switzerland to the last eight of Euro 2024.
‘Not a perfect season because we lost the Europa League final,’ he pointed out, deflecting praise at the start of this tournament. It would not befit Xhaka’s style to appear overly smug or contented, he rather likes the hostility of competition, but in 66 games for club and country he has lost only twice. And not yet on German soil since his move from Arsenal.
He has been acclaimed the Bundesliga‘s transfer of the season, a bargain for £21.4million on a five-year deal, the club’s smartest piece of business since they raided neighbours Cologne for 17-year-old Florian Wirtz according to the Leverkusen beat reporters, the keystone to an almost-all-conquering team and Xabi Alonso‘s on-field strategist and dressing room leader.
Xhaka has adopted a similar role for the Swiss, convincing Murat Yakin to embrace some of the tactical patterns they use at Leverkusen, and they have flourished from a misfiring qualification campaign to Saturday’s showdown with England in Dusseldorf, the city he now calls home.
Granit Xhaka has starred for Switzerland on their run to the Euro 2024 quarter-finals
It is coming up to a year since the Swiss star left Arsenal as he looked for a new challenge
Xhaka (centre) was integral as Bayer Leverkusen completed a historic domestic double
All of this has propelled him at the age of 31 into the public debate about candidates for the next Ballon d’Or which would be an extraordinary thing to behold for anyone at the Emirates Stadium when he tore off his captain’s armband and stormed down the tunnel swearing at the home fans as they booed him out of sight and returned his four-letter insults with interest.
They had patched up those differences by the time the left and Mikel Arteta was not in a hurry to lose him. He could easily have utilised him alongside Rice in Arsenal’s midfield, but Xhaka was ready for a new challenge and a new chapter in his life.
Alonso has been a key catalyst in the transformation. The Leverkusen boss adores Xhaka and worked hard to land the deal. Perhaps he detected a little of himself in the Swiss schemer, an abundance of technical excellence allied to a tactical mind, physical strength and an appetite for winning.
On Alonso’s watch, Xhaka has refined his game. He is a little less box-to-box in the long vertical lines of English football. Those Hollywood passes and the long-range efforts on goal are still in the locker but seen less frequently.
There is more control in his game, conducting proceedings with short passes, moving the ball, creating angles, generating tempo, trusting team-mates to protect possession under pressure, disrupting the shape of opponents and recognising the moment to strike.
At the same time screening his central defenders and killing counter attacks.
Xhaka claims he was already developing in this direction, something he puts down to his coaching studies. He started the UEFA A Licence course at Arsenal and has completed it in Germany.
For six months of last season, he spent one day a week coaching at SC Union Nettetal, a fifth-tier amateur team, where his brother-in-law Leonard Lekaj plays.
After some stunning displays at Euro 2024, Xhaka is plotting England’s downfall on Saturday
It is fitting that he will be up against Declan Rice, the £100m man who took his place at Arsenal
‘This course gave me input to read matches differently,’ said Xhaka as he picked up the man of the match award after a 3-1 win against Hungary at the start of Euro 2024. ‘Probably to be a step ahead of the opponent and have a better vision of play.’
This was evident from high in the stands of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium where he orchestrated Switzerland’s finest performance of the tournament, against Italy in the last 16, a day when he performed as if watching the game unfold from above.
With this, too, has come a little more discipline. The red mist had lifted. Xhaka even talked Alonso out of a plan to rest him from a game against Darmstadt in February when he was one yellow card from a ban which would have ruled him out of the next game, against title rivals Bayern Munich.
He played without picking up a yellow card as Leverkusen won at Darmstadt then beat Bayern convincingly and accelerated away to their first Bundesliga title before adding the German Cup, with Xhaka scoring the only goal in the final in Berlin.
He has never lacked the courage to take responsibility, attributing his steely mentality to the heritage of his family, who left Kosovo for Basel in 1990, soon after his father and uncle were released after three-and-a-half years in prison for protesting as students against the Yugoslav Government.
In the roughest days at Arsenal, when he became a symbol for fans of all that was wrong at the club and the target for vile and personal online abuse, he refused to hide or avoid his critics.
Indeed, Xhaka was always heading a very short queue of players who might address the media after a poor performance.
‘A true leader – on and off the pitch,’ says Alonso, for whom goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky wears the armband. ‘A big influence on the young players and he has made us a much better and more mature team.’
As Switzerland’s captain, Xhaka led a delegation of senior players who went to sort out problems with boss Yakin after the qualifying campaign spluttered last autumn.
Xhaka was Xabi Alonso’s on-field strategist and dressing room leader at Leverkusen last year
As Switzerland’s captain, Xhaka led a delegation of senior players who went to sort out problems with boss Murat Yakin after the qualifying campaign spluttered last autumn
There were underwhelming draws with Israel and Belarus, two with Kosovo, and defeat against Romania who went on to top of the group. They have all denied the notion of confrontation with demands from the players to revert to a back-three but there was certainly dialogue followed by a fresh atmosphere and an upturn in results.
‘Formation has never been something we’ve talked about, never an issue,’ said Xhaka. ‘We are glad to have a coach listening and talking to us. We never had problems. We are adults and we have a great relationship with the coach.
‘He came to see me many times. We met in Dusseldorf, we had dinner and drank a lot of wine together. We are ambitious and want to be successful.’
They have acquired a taste for success. Now for England and the duel with Rice. Xhaka is not likely to let a nagging stomach strain keep him out. He played with it against Italy and has been training alone, managing his workload but is expected to declare himself fit.
‘He is a machine,’ as one of Switzerland’s officials put it – and you just know he will be relishing this one.