The precocious Senderos: From Arsenal's FA Cup winner at 20 to technical director at 36 (2024)

In the course of his career, Philippe Senderos played for 11 different clubs in six different countries. He is comfortable in six languages: French, Spanish, German, English, Portuguese and Italian. After accumulating a wealth of international experience, Senderos is back home where it all began, as a sporting director of Swiss team Servette — the club where he began his playing days.

“It does feel like coming home,” Senderos tells The Athletic. “I’m back here in Geneva, living as an adult in my home city, which I’ve never done before. A lot of things are familiar: the mentality, the environment. I know a lot of the people around the club. And my goal is to give others the opportunity I got here in Servette: the chance to make a career in football.”

At 37, Senderos is young to be a technical director. Just a few months after officially retiring in December 2019, he was in a classroom in Madrid, undertaking the Spanish FA’s sporting director course. He had considered a career in coaching, but “wanted to learn the other side of the game”. COVID-19 also played a part in his choice — most countries are operating under severe restrictions, so pursuing practical training ground experience became difficult.

Throughout his tuition, he maintained contact with Servette’s president, Pascal Besnard. Once he had finished the course, Besnard offered him the chance to take up the reins at his boyhood club. For Senderos, it was a no-brainer. “I was really interested in staying in football,” Senderos explains. “I’m passionate about the game. I have a story to tell in Geneva: I started here at five years old, made my debut as a teenager. That’s something I can use. It leaves a mark on people.”

Between his retirement and his first day in the post, there were just eight months. In the course of his professional life, he has always been a quick developer: by 17, he was featuring regularly for Servette. At 18, he joined Arsenal. At 20, he started an FA Cup final against Manchester United and became a full Switzerland international. Now he is looking to attack his new career with similar precociousness.

Youth development will be a big part of his role with Servette. “It’s what our owners want,” Senderos explains. Fortunately, that is a journey Senderos understands well. He was once one of the beneficiaries of Arsene Wenger’s faith in young players. The former Arsenal manager was a fierce champion of young talent but accepted there was an associated cost to fielding inexperienced players. “You pay for the education of young players with points,” explained Wenger. “If I play a 20-year-old centre-back, I know he’ll cost me points during the season and I have to stand up for that.”

For a time, Senderos was that 20-year-old centre-back. “There is a time and a place to put young players on the pitch,” Senderos agrees. “But what you can gain is not only mistakes — there’s a lot more a young player can bring: enthusiasm, the no-fear mentality. You can’t only think about the negative aspect.”

Wenger is one of the major influences Senderos cites regarding his approach to his new role. “Arsene never stopped learning about the game,” he says. “He helped me analyse the game in a different way — to see the bigger picture.”

It was conversations with Wenger in 2002 that persuaded the young Senderos to turn down advances from Real Madrid and move to north London. “The very first conversations I had, whether with Arsene or with the chief scout Steve Rowley, were about football,” says Senderos. “It was all about the project they had for me, and what they wanted to build around me, what I was going to be a part of. That touched me. Like I said, I’m passionate about the game and all I wanted to hear was football talk. It wasn’t always like that with other clubs.”

Senderos moved into digs in Barnet, where he and Cesc Fabregas lived under legendary Irish landlady Noreen Davies. Both players are still in touch with the Davies family. “It would probably never happen in today’s world,” says Senderos. “But it was great for us: to settle down at the same time into our new environment, to focus on football instead of cooking or cleaning or whatever else, even just to have someone to talk to when we came home.”

Unsurprisingly, given that he spent his formative years there, Arsenal has left a lasting impression on Senderos. Although he enjoyed his spells in England with Everton, Fulham and Aston Villa, Arsenal remains special to him. “It’s a club that is very close to my heart,” he says. “I go back and visit whenever I can. I played with (now-technical director) Edu at Arsenal and with (now-manager) Mikel Arteta at Everton. I feel a good connection there.”

After FA Cup success in that 2005 meeting with Manchester United, Senderos very nearly started an even bigger final a year later. He was instrumental in Arsenal’s run to the 2006 Champions League final, but an injury meant he was never truly in contention to start against Barcelona in Paris. “After the first leg of the semi-final, we played in the derby against Spurs and I hurt my knee,” says Senderos. “I missed on the second leg of the semi-final — and I just made it back in time to make the bench for the final. So yeah, it was very disappointing to not be in the starting lineup, but I was glad to even make the squad because I wasn’t 100 per cent fit.”

Senderos’ bruising battles against Didier Drogba are infamous, but he is philosophical. “I was young, and they were always tough games against Chelsea,” he smiles. “It wasn’t a case of one against one — they were always big battles between the two teams. I don’t think I’m the only player who struggled against great strikers like Drogba.”

When first-team football became hard to come by, Senderos moved on loan to AC Milan and Everton before joining Fulham on a permanent deal. From then on, a somewhat nomadic career ensued: aside from his four English clubs, Senderos also represented Valencia, Grasshoppers, Rangers, Houston Dynamo and Swiss second division team Chiasso.

“My goal was always to establish myself and settle down somewhere and stay as long as possible,” he says. “But things change. I hear people commenting on players that move a lot, saying they just like to change it up all the time. But that wasn’t the case for me. If you love the game the way I do, you just want to play football. And if you’re not playing football regularly, then it’s time to move somewhere else, to fight for your place as long as possible. If playing football is what makes you happy, you need to go for it.”

Senderos’ time playing in different countries means he brings a wealth of experience back to Servette. “I need to take ideas from all the different places that I’ve been, and try to mould them to fit the Servette cultures and values.

“It means I can relate to the players who are leaving home. I know the difficulties of moving, the fact that you need some time to adapt. My languages are helpful too. I can sometimes find an affinity with players quicker.”

Another major influence from abroad has been Victor Orta, now-sporting director at Leeds United. “I’ve known him since I was very, very young — 17 years old,” he says. “And throughout my career, he has helped me on many, many decisions and we’ve always been in touch. We talk regularly. He’s an inspiration, because of what he’s done so far, and what he’s doing now.”

Servette are fifth in the 10-team Swiss Super League. “The main goal in the next few years would be to establish ourselves as a Super League team. In our first two years in the top division, we’ve managed to be fourth and third, and we’ve played in Europe in the qualifying round. We need to stay in the top half of the league, while still promoting our younger players. It is a balance that we need to find. The next step will be to fight for titles, but that will take a bit more time.”

Senderos recognises that selling off the club’s young talent will be part of that process. “It’s inevitable,” he says. “I’m not here doing trading and trying to play players before they’re ready, but this is part of the strategy of the club. In the past, a lot of players have left before they arrived in the first team, and some will continue to do that. But the main goal would be for them to break into the first team and from then make the jump to bigger clubs.”

For now, Senderos seems to be relishing the transition from training pitch to office. “I was happy when I finished playing,” he says. “It was a little bit of a relief because it was taking its toll on me, coming back and getting hurt and not being at the level where I thought I should be. I could maybe have continued — I don’t have massive physical problems, I’m fit, I go for runs. But I couldn’t push myself to the level I wanted.

“Match days are different now. I get the butterflies, I get nervous, but I don’t have a way to exteriorise this. I feel a lot of frustration because I wish I could be out there, but I’ve come to understand my position now. It’s very hard, but I try to take a bit of distance. I try to live the game a different way.”

(Top image: Servette FC)

James McNicholas has covered Arsenal extensively for more than a decade. He has written for ESPN, Bleacher Report and FourFourTwo Magazine, and is the co-host of the Arsecast Extra Podcast. Follow James on Twitter @gunnerblog