Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Date of birth | 7 January 1957 | ||
Position(s) | Goalkeeper | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1977–1979 | Neuchâtel Xamax | 0 | (0) |
1979–1980 | FC Lugano | 0 | (0) |
1981–1982 | FC Monthey | 0 | (0) |
1983–1984 | FC Martigny-Sports | 0 | (0) |
Total | 0 | (0) | |
* Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Christian Constantin (born 7 January 1957) is a Swiss architect and former goalkeeper. [1] He is also the owner and Chairman of Swiss football club FC Sion. [2] He bought the club, which had neared bankruptcy and was relegated from the Swiss Super League, in 2003. [1]
During his ownership of FC Sion, Constantin has made upwards of 50 managerial changes and appointed himself as manager in 2008 and 2021. He once fired a head coach because of his scent and allegedly assaulted Swiss league referee Markus von Känel in 2004 during a live match broadcast. [3] In 2017, he kicked Austrian pundit and former coach Rolf Fringer down to the ground on live television during a Swiss league match for which he received a 14-month ban. [4] [5]
In 2023, he fired Sion's then-manager David Bettoni at half-time during a match against Servette before forcing him to stand on the side lines for the remainder of the game. [6] In a separate episode, he verbally confronted Mario Balotelli (whom he had signed). In 2011, Constantin signed six players under a transfer ban because of what happened with Essam El-Hadary’s transfer, [7] and appeared on live TV on a horse.
Yet under his presidency, the club also experienced considerable success, such as winning the Swiss Cup in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015.
Constantin was formerly a goalkeeper who played for Neuchâtel Xamax (1977–1979), FC Lugano (1979–1980), FC Monthey (1981–1982) and FC Martigny-Sports (1983–1984). [8]
In March 2020, Constantin sacked 9 of his FC Sion first-team players after they refused to take a pay cut after the outbreak of the COVID-19 and suspension of the Swiss Super League. [9]
In 2014, Constantin appointed his son Barthélémy as Sporting Director of FC Sion, a position he has held ever since. [10]