Sponsoring
Sponsoring
To Axpo, sponsoring has always been a partnership that mutually benefits both sides. As in all our business activities, we also focus on long-term commitments here.
Football has a long tradition at Axpo. Today, we continue to be a sponsoring partner of leading football clubs, such as Super League clubs FC Basel, the BSC Young Boys, the Grasshoppers Club Zurich, the FC Zurich and Challenge League club FC Aarau.
In addition to football, disabled sports and nature are other key elements of our sponsoring strategy. We also support over 200 different social and cultural organizations, institutions and projects in the region.
Our engagement at a glance
Nationally and regionally anchored
Football is our passion
Axpo Rookies
In the course of the Swiss football season, Axpo and “Schweizer Illustrierte” magazine will be selecting the 5 “Axpo Rookies”. The focus is on the major discoveries and the most promising future talents, who have not yet achieved the breakthrough into the major leagues. The jury comprises five experts from the football and sports press sector. Rookies named so far this season include Breel Embolo (Schalke 04), 2014/2015, and Denis Zakaria (BSC YB), 2015/2016.
Axpo Rookie 2016/17
Axpo Rookie 2015/16
Denis Zakaria - Rookie of the Year
From the hope for the future to mainstay at YB in just one year. And the EM is next! Denis Zakaria is Axpo’s Rookie of the Season. He has kept his feet on the ground and is not yet thinking about transferring to a foreign club.
Denis Zakaria become an important mainstay of YB's current team in just a short while. The 18-year old from Geneva dreams about playing for Barcelona or Paris Saint-Germain one day.
Roy Gelmi
In Eastern Switzerland, they have waited for homegrown talent like him for many years. At 20, Roy Gelmi is defensive stalwart and captain of FC St. Gallen. The Zurich-born Gelmi was also an excellent tennis player.
Martin Angha
Martin Angha has left the past behind him. He relaunched his career as defensive stalwart in St. Gallen: Axpo’s rookie for January/February is the youngest captain in Swiss professional football.
Shani Tarashaj
His hobby is kicking goals – on as well as next to the field! Thanks to his goal scoring, the GC striker Shani Tarashaj, 21 might still make it to the EM. He will transfer to FC Everton in summer.
Vincent Sierro
His father was the City President of Sierre and a member of the State Council of the canton of Valais. Vincent Sierro, 20 has little interest in politics, but many talents: the goalkicking star of FC Sion finds it easy to combine his studies and football.
Axpo Rookie 2014/15
Breel Embolo - Rookie of the Year
Axpo and Schweizer Illustrierte chose Breel Embolo as the rookie of the 14/15 season. With his sunny and cheeky temperament and fantastic talent, the 18-year-old striker of FC Basel is not only popular in Switzerland.
In Breel Embolo, FC Basel probably has the greatest player in Switzerland on its team. The 17-year-old who wants to conquer Europe soon is honoured that the experts have selected him as the first Axpo rookie.
Yanick Brecher
Times have been turbulent since he returned to FC Zurich at the beginning of April. But Yanick Brecher, 21 kept a cool head in the uproar that followed the dismissal of his predecessor David Da Costa. The Axpo rookie is the FCZ's new number one goalkicker.
Levent Gülen
GC defence player Levent Gülen is the dream of every trainer: talented, ambitious, responsible - and humble. He relaunched his career in Turkey: „I left as a young boy and returned as a man."
Edimilson Fernandes
His surname does not promise too much: At 18, Edimilson Fernandes of FC Sion is following in the footsteps of his cousin Gelson. Axpo’s rookie for February/March has a bright future ahead of him.
Francisco Rodriguez
He is the youngest of three brothers who all play professional football. And he is likely to go furthest of them all: Francisco Rodriguez, 19 is Axpo’s second Rookie of the Season.
Women’s football
Axpo has been a long-standing partner of the FC Zurich women’s team. The most successful women’s team in the top Swiss league has also achieved impressive results on the international stage, in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Regional football
Our support of the two regional associations in the cantons of Aargau and Zurich has led to local networking opportunities. These opportunities include a wide range of youth camps, football for people with disabilities as well as smaller projects with associations and institutions.
Disabled sports
Encouraging sports for the disabled is important to Axpo. With PluSport, the non-profit umbrella organization for Swiss disabled sports, we have found the ideal partner.
Nature
Nature is the most important resource for energy production, making it all the more important to look after the environment and maintain a balance between utilization and protection. We are aware that the production of energy is always linked to an intervention in nature and our environment. Together with national and regional partners such as the Four Springs Trail Foundation and Aargau Tourism, Axpo is committed to a sustainable and attractive Switzerland.
Axpo advocates the respectful, careful treatment of nature and the Alps with various sponsoring engagements. Axpo has been a sponsoring partner of the Four Springs Trail from the word go: The springs of the Rhine, Rhone, Reuss and Ticino rivers are located along the 85-kilometre-long trail that was opened in 2012. In addition, Axpo supports the electrification of the Vermigelhütte located along this trail, making a contribution to establishing a new alpine hiking trail leading to the highest watershed in Europe at 3025 metres above sea level.