Patrick de Napoli
Patrick began his senior career with Grasshopper Club Zürich in the Swiss Super League in the 1991–92 season, making his debut in a 2–1 win over FC Servette on 1 March 1992 at the age of sixteen.
[6] Patrick played in UEFA Champions League games against Ferencvárosi TC, Real Madrid (twice) and AFC Ajax, coming on as a substitute in all four matches.
Midway through the 1995–96 season, de Napoli left Grasshoppers to join FC Winterthur of the Nationalliga B, the Swiss second division.
Joining FC Winterthur midway through the season, de Napoli found himself in a relegation group in the bottom half of Nationalliga B.
De Napoli helped steer his new club to safety, as they topped the relegation group with Patrick scoring five times in thirteen games and Winterthur losing just two of their fourteen matches.
Aarau finished fifth in the 1996–97 Nationalliga A, with de Napoli missing just one of their thirty-six games and weighing in with thirteen goals, a career best.
Fußball-Bundesliga strugglers Karlsruher SC, who were then managed by future Germany national team boss Joachim Löw.
[12] He played twelve of Karlsruher SC's thirty-four league games, scoring once, in a 3–1 loss to Chemnitzer FC on 9 April 2000.
[13] However, this wasn't enough to save Karlsruher SC who were relegated at the end of the season, having won just once in de Napoli's twelve appearances.
De Napoli had enjoyed one of the best years of his career with Aarau in 1996–97, and he again experienced a return to form after rejoining the Aargau-based club.
The 2002–03 Nationalliga A went better for both player and club as FC Aarau preserved their top-flight status and de Napoli netted thirteen times in thirty-two games.
[15] He left Aarau at the end of the season to join BSC Young Boys, who had just finished second in the Swiss Super League.
De Napoli also competed in the UEFA Champions League for the first time since his Grasshoppers days, making a substitute appearance in the 3–0 second leg defeat to FK Crvena Zvezda on 4 August 2004 which eliminated Young Boys from the competition.
[16] Ahead of the 2005–06 Swiss Super League Young Boys competed in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, with de Napoli playing in their wins over Sporting Lokeren and the loss to Olympique Marseille in July 2005.
De Napoli scored his first goal for Carl Zeiss Jena in a 1–1 draw with SpVgg Greuther Fürth on 8 November 2006.
He signed a four-month loan contract, from 1 February 2007 to 30 June,[20] but expressed frustration at being farmed out at a time when the club as a whole were struggling at the foot of the table, and claimed "I'm probably just a scapegoat".
[21] However, Carl Zeiss Jena's management had a more positive view of the loan, with sporting director Lutz Lindemann saying "Chemnitz hope for promotion to the Regionalliga.
He also scored twice in a 3–2 IFV Cup win over FC Muotathal on 5 September 2010, and was described as having "changed the game" and "made the difference".
[28] De Napoli then started against Menzingen's 4–1 IFV Cup win over FC Gunzwil on 12 April 2012, being substituted late on in the game.
De Napoli enjoyed arguably the finest moment of his under-19 career when he scored a hat-trick in a 9–0 thrashing of Armenia on 8 October 1993.
English newspaper The Independent described the Swiss team that night as "inspired by Patrick de Napoli" as he created a number of chances for himself and his teammates.
[41] The forward made his debut for the senior Switzerland side in the 2–1 loss to Russia on 10 February 1997 in the final of the Lunar New Year Cup, held in Hong Kong.
After retiring from professional football, de Napoli opened a restaurant in Baar, Switzerland, in March 2011 called "Relax".
In June 2012, ahead of the UEFA Euro 2012 tournament, de Napoli introduced a large screen in the bar to show matches from the competition.
Despite describing Switzerland's failure to qualify as "a shame", de Napoli supported Italy in the tournament as he is of Italian descent.
