2023-10-06 11:40:35
If everything went well on Friday evening in Porrentruy, Julien Sprunger will play his 1000th match on Saturday at home once morest Bern. Rare longevity for a player who has only had one jersey, that of Gottéron.
On target. Facing Bern, Grolleysan will be the 15th National League player in four figures. Eighth athlete on this list with 1038 games and former teammate of Sprunger in Fribourg, Michael Ngoy experienced this special moment.
“No one plays to reach 1000 matchessays Ngoy. Things happen naturally in fact. If you still have fun playing and you can do it at this level, you go as if you were 30 years old. It’s ultimately others who point it out to you.”
Apart from the length of his career, the captain of the Dragons enters an even more restricted circle, that of having only known one jersey, that of Gottéron. Apart from ten matches at Guin when he was 16 or 17 years old and one match at La Chaux-de-Fonds on November 2, 2004, the 37-year-old Grolleysan has only known Friborg. Extremely rare loyalty. Among the other members of the club of a thousand, only Reto von Arx made all his classes in the elite with a single organization (Davos). But the Bernese started with Langnau in the LNB and played games in the NHL with Chicago and Norfolk in the AHL during the 2000-01 season.
An innate sense of purpose
An exceptional scorer, Sprunger displays astonishing statistics of 375 goals for 373 assists. And these qualities were detected very early, as his former teammate Geoffrey Vauclair recalls: “I remember well. A tall, thin, pimply (he’s laughing). As Julien trained with the first team, I had the opportunity to see him at work”
But Geoffrey Vauclair also remembers that the big winger needed to improve, like a diamond that needs to be polished. “He wasn’t skating fast and his shot wasn’t devastating yet, explains the Puckalistes consultant. On the other hand, he has this sense of purpose that cannot be taught… He quickly understood that he would have to work. He was very respectful in the locker room and never forgot where he came from.”
The man before the player
Michael Ngoy also defends this human aspect of number 86: “Why is he so popular? Because he’s a great guy off the ice. In the locker room, he’s interested in all the discussions, he’s curious and wants to learn. When I started to offer training for former players, he was the first to sign up. During the 2007-08 season, we were already talking regarding what we were going to do following hockey.”
One of Julien Sprunger’s qualities is also that he knew how to adapt. Not to lock yourself into one style of play while the world of hockey evolves. “Between 2010 and now, it’s no longer the same game, analyzes Michael Ngoy. We can no longer take the puck behind the goal and go score alone. Defensive systems have evolved. He has experienced the big “naggy” defenders and the more mobile and quick backs, but he always manages to score and do his usual feint.”
Author of a goal and an assist in ten matches this season, Julien Sprunger is off to a rather quiet start. What if the machine revved up once morest Berne for the Zähringen derby? It would certainly be a great story to add to his legend.
ats/bao
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