The 2020–21 Grasshopper Club Zurich season is the club's second consecutive season in the Swiss Challenge League, having been relegated from the 2018–19 Swiss Super League one year earlier, after playing in the top tier for 67 years. The season started on 18 September 2020 and is scheduled to end on 30 May 2021. Grasshopper Club Zurich also participate in the Swiss Cup. The first game was played on 12 September 2020.
Review and events In April 2020 the club was bought by investors from China. The new owners began to reform the club and renew the squad during the summer break, including the signing of several players from Wolverhampton Wanderers. The English Premier League club is also connected to the Chinese investors. The first game of the season was played in late September 2020, a delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland.
On May 11, 2021 coach João Carlos Pereira was sacked after three defeats in a row. He was replaced by Zoltán Kádár for the last two games of the season.
Thanks to a 2–1 win against Kriens on the last day of the season, Grasshopper Club Zurich was promoted to the Super League.
Squad
Players
No. Name Nationality Position Date of birth (age) at GCZ since Signed from Goalkeepers 1 Mirko Salvi GK 07/2018 Basel 27 Mateo Matic GK 01/2016 own youth 36 Marvin Keller GK 07/2019 own youth 57 Matthias Minder GK 09/2020 Neuchâtel Xamax Defenders 2 Oskar Buur CB 01/2021 Wolverhampton (on loan) 4 Miguel Nóbrega CB 09/2020 Benfica (on loan) 5 Aleksandar Cvetković CB 02/2018 Wohlen 20 Marcin Dickenmann CB 06/2020 own youth 22 Nadjack CB 08/2020 Rio Ave 24 Toti CB 05/2020 Wolverhampton (on loan) 31 Dominik Schmid CB 08/2020 Basel 34 Allan Arigoni CB 07/2018 own youth 44 Elias Mesonero CB 01/2020 own youth 89 Ermir Lenjani CB 09/2020 Sion Midfielders 8 André Santos MF 08/2020 Belenenses 10 Petar Pusic MF 02/2017 own youth 14 Connor Ronan MF 08/2020 Wolverhampton (on loan) 19 Nuno da Silva MF 02/2021 Thun 21 Ming-yang Yang MF 08/2017 Wolverhampton 23 Nikola Gjorgjev MF 07/2015 own youth 29 Djibril Diani MF 12/2018 own youth 30 Nuno Pina MF 08/2020 ChievoVerona (on loan) 33 Giotto Morandi MF 06/2019 own youth 47 Fabio Fehr MF 02/2020 own youth 48 Robin Kalem MF 06/2020 own youth Forwards 3 Léo Bonatini FW 09/2020 Wolverhampton (on loan) 7 Oscar Correia FW 07/2020 Étoile Carouge 9 Shkelqim Demhasaj FW 07/2020 Luzern 11 Renat Dadashov FW 08/2020 Wolverhampton (on loan) 11 Hicham Acheffay FW 01/2021 Utrecht 17 Cristian Ponde FW 08/2020 Karpaty Lviv 42 Filipe de Carvalho FW 02/2021 own youth 90 André Ribeiro FW 02/2021 St. Gallen
Players in italic left the club during the season.
Players out on loan
Transfers
In DatePlayerTransferred fromFee/notesSource30 ChievoVeronaLoan7 Étoile CarougeFree9 LuzernFree31 BaselFree21 WolverhamptonFree11 WolverhamptonLoan14 WolverhamptonLoan17 Karpaty LvivFree8 BelenensesFree22 Rio Ave EmpoliReturn from loan24 WolverhamptonLoan89 SionFree3 WolverhamptonLoan 4 BenficaLoan KriensReturn from loan 2 WolverhamptonLoan11 Utrecht19 Thun90 St. Gallen
Out DatePlayerTransferred toFee/notesSource20unattached28 Winterthur10RetirementFree13 Espérance Tunis21 Lausanne-Ouchy4 KriensLoan17unattached31 KriensLoan45 Rio Ave9 Nantong ZhiyunFree Empoli€0.5 million11 MetalacFree11 WolverhamptonLoan ended20 WilLoan29 LivingstonLoan7 Étoile CarougeLoan21 Nantong Zhiyun
Coaching staff
Current coaching staff
Position Name Since Manager Zoltán Kádár (interim) 05/2021 Assistant manager Marc Hodel (interim) 05/2021 Assistant manager Ricardo Cabanas (interim) 05/2021 Assistant manager (athletics) Walter Grüter (interim) 05/2021 Assistant manager (goalkeeper) Christoph Born 2011
until 11 May 2021
Position Name Since Manager João Carlos Pereira 2020 Assistant manager João Gião 2020 Assistant manager (methodology) Gilberto Freitas 2020 Assistant manager (individual) Lino Godinho 2020 Assistant manager (athletics) Bruno Ferreira 2020 Assistant manager (goalkeeper) Christoph Born 2011
Competitions
Overview
Challenge League
Kickoff times are in CET
Swiss Cup
Kickoff times are in CET
Pre-season and friendlies
Statistics
Goalscorers {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- !width=15| !width=15| !width=15| !width=15| !width=145|Name !width=80|Challenge League !width=80|Swiss Cup !width=80|Total |- !rowspan=1|1 |3 |FW | |align=left|Léo Bonatini |11 |2 |13 |- !rowspan=1|2 |9 |FW | |align=left|Shkelqim Demhasaj |10 |1 |11 |- !rowspan=1|3 |10 |MF | |align=left|Petar Pusic |9 |0 |9 |- !rowspan=1|4 |23 |MF | |align=left|Nikola Gjorgjev |7 |0 |7 |- !rowspan=1|5 |17 |FW | |align=left|Cristian Ponde |5 |1 |6 |- !rowspan=2|6 |30 |MF | |align=left|Nuno Pina |3 |0 |3 |- |31 |DF | |align=left|Dominik Schmid |2 |0 |2 |- !rowspan=3|8 |8 |MF | |align=left|André Santos |2 |0 |2 |- |24 |DF | |align=left|Toti |2 |0 |2 |- |33 |MF | |align=left|Giotto Morandi |2 |0 |2 |- !rowspan=7|11 |5 |DF | |align=left|Aleksandar Cvetković |1 |0 |1 |- |14 |MF | |align=left|Connor Ronan |1 |0 |1 |- |19 |MF | |align=left|Nuno da Silva |1 |0 |1 |- |34 |DF | |align=left|Allan Arigoni |1 |0 |1 |- |48 |MF | |align=left|Robin Kalem |0 |1 |1 |- |89 |DF | |align=left|Ermir Lenjani |1 |0 |1 |- |90 |FW | |align=left|André Ribeiro |1 |0 |1 |- class="sortbottom" |colspan=5|Own goals |0 |0 |0 |- |colspan=5|Totals |60 |5 |65
References
External links