Gelson Fernandes (born 2 September 1986 in Praia) is a Swiss football midfielder born in the Cape Verde Islands^[1] who plays for AS Saint-Étienne in the French Ligue 1, as well as the Swiss national team.

[edit] Club career

[edit] Manchester City

He signed for Manchester City from FC Sion on 14 July 2007 for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around 6 million euros (£4.2m), which would make his sale the second highest transfer in the history of the Swiss League.^{[citation needed]} Following his signing, City manager Sven-Göran Eriksson commented that he thought Fernandes was the "best young player in Switzerland." ^[2] He made his full debut in the 0-0 draw against Portsmouth.

His first goal for Man City came in a 2–0 victory against Newcastle United after coming on as a substitute. It took just 40 seconds for Fernandes and Kelvin Etuhu to combine for the former to finish from the edge of the box. Gelson scored his second goal in the 1–3 loss to Arsenal at the City of Manchester Stadium. Vedran Corluka took advantage of a Gael Clichy defensive error, who slipped in a pass into the 6 yard box for Gelson to tuck home. The goal was not enough to secure any points for Manchester City, but showed the City Fans that he was also capable of having an eye for goal like fellow youth midfielder, Michael Johnson.

At the start of the 2008-2009 season he had his number changed from number 28 to number 19. The number 28 shirt was taken by English and former Manchester City striker Daniel Sturridge (now at Chelsea). He has since scored twice in the 08/09 season with goals against Brighton and the final goal in the 6-0 win against Portsmouth. Gelson made 59 appearances for City, scoring four times, but he was increasingly used as a substitute after Mark Hughes took over as Blues’ boss.

[edit] AS Saint-Etienne

On 09 July 2009, he moved on trial to AS Saint-Étienne and passed a medical on Friday the 09 July 2009 to complete a £2m move to the French club.^[3]. He will sign a two year contract^[4] and moved on undisclosed fee^[5].

[edit] International career

Fernandes was captain of the Swiss Under 21 side that played against the English Under 21 side in their Euro 2007 qualifying match.

He made his first full international appearance for Switzerland against Holland on 22 August 2007. He has since continued to be a regular for Switzerland, playing in their friendly defeat to England at Wembley in February 2008. He also played in all three of the Swiss side's Euro 2008 fixtures. On 28 March 2009, Fernandes scored his first goal for Switzerland, heading in a corner to seal a 2:0 win against the Moldova national football team.

[edit] Personal life

According to Manchester City teammate Micah Richards, he is fluent in five languages.^[6] The five languages are: English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Although these are the most widely known languages that Fernandes speaks, it is also known that he can speak Portuguese due to it being the official language of his birthplace, Cape Verde. He is the cousin of Valencia CF midfielder Manuel Fernandes.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Honours

• Swiss Cup: 2006

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Gelson Fernandes career stats at Soccerbase
• Profile on 4thegame.com

v • d • e Switzerland squad – UEFA Euro 2008 1 Benaglio • 2 Djourou • 3 Magnin • 4 Senderos • 5 Lichtsteiner • 6 Huggel • 7 Cabanas • 8 Inler • 9 Frei • 10 Yakin • 11 Streller • 12 Derdiyok • 13 Grichting • 14 Gygax • 15 Gelson • 16 Barnetta • 17 Spycher • 18 Zuberbühler • 19 Behrami • 20 Müller • 21 Jakupović • 22 Vonlanthen • 23 P. Degen • Coach: Kuhn