Breel Embolo

Three days later, he made his domestic league debut in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park, coming on as a substitute in the 85th minute.

Embolo scored his first goal for the team four minutes later, concluding a 5–0 win against Aarau.

Breel Donald Embolo (born 14 February 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Monaco and the Switzerland national team.

Born in Cameroon, Embolo moved with his family to France before finally settling in Switzerland.

Embolo was born on 14 February 1997 in the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé.

His parents separated when he was young, and at the age of five or six, his mother moved to France where he attended school; he was raised between Toulouse and Paris.

Whilst there she met her future husband, a Swiss national.

The following year, the family moved to Basel in Switzerland.

Embolo started his youth football with Nordstern.

At the age of ten, Embolo failed his first trial with Basel, so he moved to the Old Boys.

He was finally allowed to join the FCB youth system in their U-13 team.

In the 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons he played in Basel's U-16.

With the U-16 team he won the Swiss Championship title twice at this level.

He received various individual prizes, such as the Basel youngster of the year 2013.

On 8 March 2013, just three weeks after his 16th birthday, he signed his first professional contract with the club.

In summer 2013 he advanced to play in their U-18 and U-21 teams.

During the winter break of their 2013–14 season, Embolo advanced to Basel's first team under head coach Murat Yakin.

At the end of the 2013–14 Super League season he won the league championship with Basel; they also reached the final of the 2013–14 Swiss Cup, but Embolo sat on the bench as they were beaten 2–0 by Zürich after extra time.

After working his way through their junior teams, Embolo made his professional debut for Basel in March 2014, and won the Swiss Super League in all three of his first seasons before moving to Schalke 04 for a reported fee of €20 million.

Shortly after moving to the Bundesliga, he suffered an ankle injury that ruled him out for nearly a year.

He later played in Germany for Borussia Mönchengladbach and in the French Ligue 1 for Monaco.

After appearing in two test games, Embolo made his professional debut on 13 March 2014 as a 90th-minute substitute for Geoffroy Serey in the Europa League round of 16 first leg at St. Jakob-Park.

The match against Red Bull Salzburg ended in a goalless draw.

In their 2014–15 season new head coach was Paulo Sousa, and Embolo advanced to becoming a regular player and a regular goal scorer.

On 4 November 2014, he scored his first goal in the UEFA Champions League, opening a 4–0 home group win against Ludogorets Razgrad.

In the second round of the 2014–15 Swiss Cup, the match on 21 September in the Schützenwiese, Embolo scored his first hat-trick for the team as they won 4–0 against Winterthur to advance to the next round.

Basel reached the cup final, however, for the third consecutive season they finished the competition as runners-up.

Embolo made his senior international debut in 2015, earning over 60 caps.

During the 2014–15 league season, in the match at home on 12 April 2015, Embolo scored his first domestic league hat-trick as Basel won 5–1 against Zürich.

At the end of the season Basel won the championship for the sixth time in a row.

After winning the title, Embolo called Raphael Wicky, the club's under-18 manager, and requested that he play their remaining games now the senior season was over.

Basel hired Urs Fischer as their new head coach for their 2015–16 season.

Basel played in the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League group stage, and Embolo achieved two goals in eight appearances and the team completed the group stage coming top in table.

Under Fischer, Embolo won a third consecutive Swiss championship at the end of the 2015–16 Super League season.

He represented Switzerland at the UEFA European Championship in 2016 and 2020, and at the FIFA World Cup in 2018 and 2022.

Late into the 2016 January transfer window, VfL Wolfsburg made a bid for Embolo, but it was rejected by Basel.

The bid was reported to be close to €27 million.

In June 2016, Embolo was described by FourFourTwo as "one of Europe's hottest prospects".

On 26 June 2016 Basel announced that Embolo would leave the club and that he had signed a five-year contract.

It was agreed not to disclose the terms of the transfer.