Waiting for the finishing touch: Géraldine Reuteler has shaped the Swiss selection at the European Championship like no other

The face of Geneva native Smilla Vallotto lights up. At 21, she's also one of the young players on the Swiss women's team that just defeated Iceland 2-0 in Bern. Cheers can be heard outside the Wankdorf Stadium, and outside the dressing room, Vallotto is asked to say a few words about Géraldine Reuteler. "Schéri," Vallotto says in French, "Schéri has 'awesome qualities'. I hope for her that a big club buys her this summer. One bigger than Eintracht Frankfurt."

Vallotto herself is moving from Hammarby to Wolfsburg this summer, the club that is shaping the top of German women's football. Wolfsburg or Bayern Munich – these two clubs have been fighting it out for the championship title for years. Eintracht Frankfurt tried to interfere, but last season they ultimately only managed third place – just like the year before. As always, really. "We screwed up," said Géraldine Reuteler succinctly in a video call before the home European Championship.

With 79 caps, the 26-year-old is among the midfielders in the selection and has the most experience among the remaining established players, behind the trio Lia Wälti, Noelle Maritz, and Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic , who have a combined total of 431 caps. Reuteler is one of the remaining guiding stars for players like Vallotto.

Whether Reuteler will be deployed up front, as she did against Norway, or on the right side of midfield, as she did against Iceland, is an "ongoing discussion," as national coach Pia Sundhage puts it. Regardless, the agile and versatile attacker has become indispensable. In the opening match of the European Championship against Norway (1:2), she missed a great chance to equalize in the closing stages, but against Iceland she scored to make it 1:0. Her stature and over 20 tattoos set her apart from other national team players.

Reuteler, the small, nimble, and skillful lightweight, suddenly appears tall and cool-headed, in front of 30,000 people in Bern. She seems to be implementing her plan: When will she play a truly enjoyable tournament in the national team jersey if not now? The European Championship is already her fourth tournament. And each time she's been coached by someone different.

The journey began as an 18-year-old with the 2017 European Championships and coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg , whom she has known "forever," as Reuteler says, since she was 13 and came to the Huttwil training center. She was followed by the Dane Nils Nielsen at the 2022 European Championships ("He gave us responsibility") and the German Inka Grings at the 2023 World Cup, who, according to Reuteler, knows what she wants. And who also communicates this: "It was difficult for her to delegate responsibility; she wanted to do everything herself."

2023 will be a complicated year for the Swiss women's football team, marked by turmoil within the team. It wasn't long ago – and yet it's almost forgotten.

Reuteler speaks from the heart. After poor test or Nations League matches, she can convey the feeling the day after that everything went smoothly. She'll say things like: "I have no doubts." Or: "The home Euros are different. Moreover, the preparation for other tournaments wasn't good either." She speaks standard German quickly and with almost no accent. Seven years in Frankfurt leave their mark. For example, in one of her European Championship announcements at the beginning of June, after a losing streak with almost no goals scored: "We'll give it our all."

She describes the city on the Main as her "second home." Frankfurt is different from Stans, where she began her football career. Or from Huttwil in the Emmental Valley. Or from Lucerne. But anyone who thinks that 30,000 people in a stadium is everyday life for Reuteler is mistaken. The Eintracht Frankfurt women's team does play in front of over 10,000 people in the large Frankfurt Arena, but only when the Champions League is playing. Or, as was the case last season, for a specially advertised league match against Bayern Munich, which was attended by 30,000 people.

Otherwise, the reality is: the stadium at Brentanobad, with an average crowd of 2,000 to 3,000. Larger than in Switzerland, but not yet more. According to Reuteler, too, the saying in Frankfurt regarding infrastructure is too often: "The men are in the stadium, we're next to the stadium." Whether and when it will move on from Frankfurt remains to be seen.

She had to deal with a major setback in 2021 when she was "away," as she calls it, for almost a year. A torn cruciate ligament and complications. One surgery, a second. Doubt, fear, hope. "That wasn't pleasant because the healing was delayed," she says, looking back today. "I had problems with extension and was in constant pain. There were stuck scars that had to be removed in a second operation." But that was a while ago. Fortunately for Reuteler.

She grew up with four brothers and shed tears along her journey as a footballer. Not just because of the injury in 2021. Away from home, struggling for recognition as a footballer. She's been part of the national team for over eight years now. The coaching staff and other support staff have been significantly expanded. And the infrastructure has become more professional. Two things that are better than in 2017? Reuteler answers: "We get charter flights more often. They make recovery easier." And what else? "Good question. I don't know, really."

In any case, whether the Swiss women's European Championship journey extends beyond their third group match in Geneva against Finland could also depend on Géraldine Reuteler. Whether she can come up with something clever in attack, whether she can implement what the team struggled with in the months leading up to the Euros: penalty-area play, shots on goal.

If further offensive prowess and the quarterfinals are added, the likelihood increases that "Géri" (as she is known in German and Swiss German for short) will also consider a bigger club. As a Frankfurt native, she doesn't have much choice. She would have to go to Munich. Or to England or Spain.