Alexander Frei

Alexander Freiimage:Alexander Frei|Alexander Frei is a Swiss footballer who presently plays for Swiss Axpo Super League club, FC Basel, is the captain of the Swiss national team.

Frei started his professional career with FC Basel and later on, got shifted to other Switzerland based teams like FC Thun, Servette FC and FC Lucerne. After getting transferred to Rennes, a French club, he made his mark as the highest goal scorer in Ligue 1 with 20 goals in 2004-05. The same season he was named as the Swiss Footballer of the year, which was also awarded to him in 2004 and 2007.

Frei was the highest goal scorer with 16 goals in 32 matches for Borussia Dortmund, a team which he signed in 2006 for a four year contract basis. This team even paid him a transfer fee of around five million Euros. However, a long term injury unabled him to play in further matches and by 2007-08 season he was back to score six times better than in his last eight appearances with this team.

After certain doubts about his future with the team, he came back to action in the 4rth fixture of the Bundesliga against Schalke 04, where he scored 2 goals. By 2009 he left the Borussia Dortmund team to join FC Basel making his debut in a 2-1 victory over FC Sion.

Frei played for Switzerland at Euro 2004 and at FIFA World Cup in 2006 in Germany. In 2006, he scored 2 goals and one in the tournament held against Togo. He at present has around 73 caps for Switzerland. This top scorer of 40 goals was injured within the first half of the opening match of UEFA Euro in 2008. He got injured when he was captaining the Swiss team and missed the rest of the match due to a torn knee ligament in his left knee. However, he decided to remain with the team to show his support and later underwent surgery.

=== Career Highlights ===

Frei has received various awards and honors like the Schweizer Cup with the Servette team in 2001, Swiss Super League and Schweizer Cup again with the FC Basel team in 2010. However, individually he received honors like the Credit Suisse Player of the year in 2003, Top goals in Ligue 1 in 2005, when he made 20 goals and in 2007 with the Swiss Player of the year.