Men’s national team player Luca Graf and Women’s national team goalkeeper Monika Schmid have announced their retirement from the Swiss national team and floorball. Schmid will still play in the SSL semi-finals with Rönnby but for Graf the season is already over.
Monika Schmid
Monika Schmid announced her retirement from floorball in March. After seven World Championships, four bronze medals, one silver medal, 116 international matches, four championship titles and five Swiss cup wins, the national team goalkeeper is ending her successful career at the end of the season.
It’s been a long time since a WFC without Monika Schmid. Schmid has been in the squad for every World Floorball Championships since 2011 and, together with Lara Heini, has formed Switzerland’s strong goalkeeping duo since 2017. WFC 2025 will be the first WFC without the Zurich native. Schmid has decided that this season will be her last and that she will end her active career both in the national team and at club level. For several years now, it has been increasingly difficult for her to find the right balance between floorball, her job and her time with family and friends. Now she has realised that the time is right and that she wants to set her priorities differently: “After last season in Sweden, I realised that I want to tinker around even more and develop myself further”, says Schmid. “As soon as the season started, I realised that it would be my last season and that it would be a good last season.”
In 2022, Schmid ventured abroad at the age of 32. She played the last two seasons of her career with Västerås Rönnby IBK in the SSL. Before that, Schmid spent twelve years in goal for the Kloten-Dietlikon Jets, winning the championship title four times and the cup final five times.
With seven world championships, five world championship medals and 116 international matches, there are plenty of highlights, which is why it’s not easy for Schmid to single out individual ones: “The first world championships in St. Gallen, when I was surprisingly called up, winning my first world championship medal two years later in the Czech Republic or the atmosphere at the 2019 World championships in Neuchâtel, when I was called up for the penalty in the semi-final and saved it. That was an incredible feeling.”
But the best part was the time with the team: “It was always a big highlight for me to see how we developed as a team during a two-year campaign.” There were also many highlights at club level, such as the first Cup title with Dietlikon, which ended a long title drought. In addition to her time with the team, she will also miss tinkering around: “I will certainly miss thinking about how I can move even faster in goal and save even more balls.”
Before Schmid returns to Switzerland, there are matches left with Rönnby. The team finished 3rd during regular season and won the play-offs against Falun 3-0. Now they will continue to the semi-finals and meet Pixbo. This means the Swiss goalkeeper duo Heini and Schmid will be playing against each other in the SSL semi-finals. First match will be played on Friday 12th of April.
Luca Graf
Only few players have played more international matches for Switzerland than Luca Graf. He made 112 appearances for Switzerland during his career, sometimes leading the team as captain. Graf made his debut for the national team in 2013, followed by his first World Floorball Championships a year later. He and his team returned empty-handed from that event, but at the next World Floorball Championships in 2016 he was able to celebrate his first medal. He added a silver and a bronze medal at The World Games in 2017 and the 2018 WFC. He finished his last two World Floorball Championships in fourth place with Switzerland. “My floorball journey has been full of passion, dedication and tireless work. But now my energy reserves for the necessary sacrifice are exhausted,” says Luca Graf about his retirement. “Every drop of sweat, every tear of joy has shaped me – not only as an athlete, but also as a person.”
The 33-year-old found his way into floorball relatively late. At the age of 16, he joined the floorball club Gürbetal RK Belp. After two years, he moved to Floorball Köniz’s U21 team and received his first contract for Köniz’s first team for the 2011/12 season. In the 2013/14 season, he had his first adventure abroad with Växjö IBK in the Swedish league before returning to Köniz in 2014. He celebrated his first title with the team in 2016: the Cup title. This was followed a year later in his first season at GC Unihockey. In 2020, he decided to move to Zug United. After one season, he spent another year in Sweden, this time with Sirius. In 2022, he returned to Switzerland to join Köniz and won the Supercup and the Cup in 2023, the last titles of his career. In addition to these successes, there were countless highlights in his career. “It’s difficult to define individual highlights,” says Graf. “For me, it’s the totality of emotions, friendships and experiences that make floorball so fascinating.”
Source: swissunihockey.ch
