Shaqiri inspires Basel to seal first Swiss league title since 2017
GENEVA (AP) — Inspired by Xherdan Shaqiri's return home from Major League Soccer, Basel sealed its first Swiss league title since 2017 on Sunday without playing.
Second-placed Servette's failure to win — drawing 0-0 at home to third-placed Young Boys — left Basel 11 points clear with three rounds left.
The 33-year-old Shaqiri has starred in the title run-in for his hometown club which he rejoined last August after three unremarkable seasons with Chicago Fire.
Shaqiri scored a hat trick in less than 10 minutes on Saturday, after Basel was reduced to 10 men, in a 5-2 win at Lugano. The second goal was an instinctive, curling and dipping shot like when he scored for Switzerland at the 2024 European Championship against Scotland.
Shaqiri the spark
Seven straight wins for Basel, scoring five goals in each of the last three games, turned a tight title race involving at least five teams into a procession.
Shaqiri was the spark with nine goals and seven assists during the winning streak to raise his season tallies in the league to a career-best 18 goals and 20 assists.
The playmaker has now won the Swiss league in each of his four seasons with Basel, after the first three titles began when he was aged 18 in 2010. That started a Basel run of eight straight titles ending in 2017.
Shaqiri left Basel in 2012 to join Bayern Munich where the next season he won the first of his two Champions League winners' medals. The second came with Liverpool in 2019.
Basel will enter the Champions League next season in the qualifying playoffs round in August. The Swiss league runner-up will enter in the second qualifying round in July, needing to beat three opponents to advance to the lucrative 36-team league phase.
Basel is coached by former Switzerland midfielder Fabio Celestini who took over in October 2023 when the team was last in the standings.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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