Pascal Schürpf

In the 37th and 70th minute he netted the teams second and third goal as Basel went on to win 5–0 and qualify for the next round.

However, during the first half of the season Schürpf played only five times in the league and twice in the cup for the first team.

Over this same period, he had eight appearances for the U-21, scoring six times.

Pascal Schürpf (born 15 July 1989) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a midfielder or striker for Grasshopper Club Zürich in the Swiss Super League.

He was also Swiss youth international footballer.

Born in Basel, Schürpf started his football in the youth system at local amateur club BSC Old Boys, before joining the youth system of FC Basel in 1999, progressing regularly through the ranks.

He played in their U-18 team during the 2005–06 season, under coach Patrick Rahmen and his assistant Marco Walker and with them won both the Swiss U-18 championship and the U-19/18 national cup that season.

Another season later Schürpf advanced to Basel's U-21 team, who played in the 1. Liga at that time the third highest tier in the Swiss football league system.

Here in his first season, again under coach Patrick Rahmen, Schürpf scored 17 goals for them in 26 appearances, the team ending the season as division champions, but not being eligible for promotion.

On 29 May 2008, he signed his first professional contract with the club, a three-year contract running until 30 June 2011.

In the 2008–09 season Schürpf was well under way, scoring 15 times in 16 outings during the first half of their season.

At that time, Basel's city neighbours and partner team Concordia Basel played in the 2008–09 Swiss Challenge League.

For the second half of the season Schürpf was loaned out to them and here he played his professional debut.

Schürpf played fourteen games and scored five goals in his time with the club and the team ended the season in eighth position.

However, Concordia were refused a professional license for the 2009–10 season and, due to financial reasons, were administratively relegated to the fourth tier.

Therefore, Schürpf returned to his club of origin.

Returning to Basel, he joined Basel's first team in advance of their 2009–10 season under head coach Thorsten Fink.

Despite training with them, Schürpf could not break into the team, so after October gained playing practice with the U-21 team.

Then on 12 December, he played his debut for the club in the Swiss Cup quarter-final home match in the St. Jakob-Park as Basel won 3–1 against Biel-Bienne.

Just four days later, on 16 December, he played his debit in a European competition.

In the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League the final match of the group stage was a home game against Fulham and Schürpf came on as substitute in the 79th minute.

After playing in nine further test games during the winter break, Schürpf played his domestic league debut for the team on 14 February 2010 as substitute in the 3–1 away win against Neuchâtel Xamax.

Schürpf won the national Double with Basel at the end of the season.

During the early days of their following 2010–11 season Schürpf played his first domestic league match over the full 90 minutes and in this game he scored his first league goal for the team.

On 21 August 2010 in the away game against FC Thun, he scored the first goal of the match, but the home team pulled it back and it ended with a 1–1 draw.

Four weeks later, on 19 September Basel played a match in the first round of the 2010–11 Swiss Cup away against third tier Mendrisio-Stabio.

Schürpf was in the starting eleven and scored a brace.

Schüpf joined FC Lugano under head coach Marco Schällibaum for the second half of the 2010–11 Challenge League season.

Basel renewed Schürpf's contract, extending it until June 2014, then on 9 January 2011 the club announced that they had loaned Schürpf out to FC Lugano in the Challenge League until the end of the season.

He made his debut in the Lugano colours in the 2–1 home win against Vaduz on 21 February 2011.

His first goal for Lugano was the winning goal in the 3–2 away win against Biel-Bienne just one week later.

Lugano had a good run, winning ten games straight off, rising to the top of the table.

However, things turned in the opposite direction and they were defeated five times in a row.

Lugano missed promotion, three points behind division winners Lausanne-Sport and level on points with Servette, who won the promotion play-off.

In his short period with them, Schüpf played 16 of their 17 matches, of which 14 appearances were in the starting formation.

For their 2011–12 season Schüpf was recalled to Basel.

In July 2011 he played with Basel in the Uhrencup and won the tournament.

But during the first half of the season he only played in three league matches and had two appearances in the 2011–12 Swiss Cup.

Therefore, he was loaned out again, so that he could gain playing experience.

This time to Aarau, again in the Challenge League.