Marco Streller (born 18 June 1981) is a Swiss former footballer who played as a striker and is best known for his years with FC Basel and the Switzerland national team.
[5] Streller was born in Basel and began his youth football with local club FC Aesch, coming through the ranks between 1988 and 1997.
Streller started his professional football career with local club FC Basel under manager Christian Gross in 2000.
He scored 16 goals in 30 starts in the Nationalliga B with Concordia, which made his home club and Gross sit up and take notice.
During the 2003–04 Swiss Super League season, he scored 13 goals in 16 games, thus gathering the interest of a handful of Bundesliga clubs including VfB Stuttgart.
Stuttgart therefore allowed Streller to rejoin his boyhood heroes FC Basel on a free transfer in June 2007.
[9] For the 2011–12 Swiss Super League season trainer Thorsten Fink named Marco Streller as team captain.
[11] At the end of the 2011–12 season, Streller won the Double, the League Championship title[12] and the Swiss Cup[13] with Basel.
On 18 September 2013, he headed the winning goal away to Chelsea in the opening group game of the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League.
Basel entered the Champions League in the group stage and reached the knockout phase as on 9 December 2014 they managed a 1–1 draw at Anfield against Liverpool.
He played at the 2006 FIFA World Cup and during the tournament's final stage he missed a spot-kick during his side's penalty shootout against Ukraine, who emerged victorious.
As a consequence, Streller announced his international retirement after the Euro 2008, citing he does not have "the full support of the fans".
Ottmar Hitzfeld, designated Swiss manager from July 2008, convinced Streller to continue his international career.
On 5 April 2011, he stepped down from the national team along with Alexander Frei, after being sharply criticised by home fans following a 0–0 draw with Bulgaria for the Euro 2012 qualifier.