Yannis Tafer

Yannis Tafer (French pronunciation: ​[janis tafɛːʁ], born 11 February 1991) is an Algerian footballer who plays for Swiss club FC St. Gallen in the Swiss Super League. He is a France youth international having represented the country under-17, under-18, and under-19 level. Tafer was the top scorer at the 2008 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship leading the tournament with four goals and played on the under-19 team that won the 2010 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship.

Club career

Early career

Tafer was born in the city of Grenoble in the Rhône-Alpes region to an Algerian father, who emigrated to France from Constantine, and a Portuguese mother. He began his football career with a local club in the region, FC Échirolles. After spending seven years with his childhood club, Tafer signed an aspirant (youth) contract with the then three-time champions Olympique Lyonnais.

Lyon

Following the 2007–08 season, Tafer signed his first professional contract with Lyon agreeing to a three-year contract until 2011. For the 2008–09 season, he was placed on Lyon's first-team squad and was assigned the 34 shirt, though he was reassigned to the number 29. Tafer was a key participant in the club's preseason tour playing in four of the five matches contested. He scored three goals in the preseason netting one each against second division club Nîmes, Romanian club Rapid Bucureşti, and fellow Ligue 1 club Nancy.

FC St. Gallen

FC St. Gallen (Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879) is a Swiss football club based in St. Gallen. The club is currently playing in the 2015–16 Swiss Super League.

History

Having been founded on 19 April 1879, FC St. Gallen is the oldest existing club in Swiss football and mainland Europe. However, the team has had relatively little success in comparison to other clubs. Despite the fact that St. Gallen won the Swiss championship twice in the 1903–04 and 1999–2000 seasons, the team has mostly been a mid-table side. During the last decade, the strength of the club continually declined and this eventually resulted in the transformation to a yo-yo club. St. Gallen were relegated to the second-tier Challenge League twice at the end of the 2007–08 and the 2010–11 seasons. St. Gallen has recently seen a remarkable surge in performance over the last 2 years and now has solidified itself as one of Switzerland's better clubs.

Stadium

FC St. Gallen play their home games at the AFG Arena. The stadium has a capacity of 19,694 and it is on the west side of town. The stadium replaced the former Espenmoos stadium in the east.

St. Gallen

St. Gallen, or sometimes Sankt Gallen ( Sankt Gallen ; English: St Gall; French: Saint-Gall; Italian: San Gallo; Romansh: Son Gagl) is the capital of the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. It evolved from the hermitage of Saint Gall, founded in the 7th century. Today, it is a large urban agglomeration (with around 160,000 inhabitants) and represents the center of eastern Switzerland. The town mainly relies on the service sector for its economic base.

The main tourist attraction is the Abbey of Saint Gall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its renowned library contains books which date back to the 9th century.

The official language of St. Gallen is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.

The city has good transport links to the rest of the country and to neighbouring Germany and Austria. It also functions as the gate to the Appenzell Alps.

Geography

St. Gallen is situated in the northeastern part of Switzerland in a valley about 700 meters (2,300 ft) above sea level. It is one of the highest cities in Switzerland and it often receives a lot of snow in winter. The city is pleasantly situated between Lake Constance and the mountains of the Appenzell Alps (with the Säntis as the highest peak at 2,502 meters (8,209 ft)). It therefore offers excellent recreation areas nearby.