'The Swiss Messi': Amdouni preparing to face off with his idol in quarter-finals

"I'm going to play against Messi. Wallah, that's it, I could quit football now." The message, posted on Snapchat in the privacy of the Swiss dressing room after qualifying against Colombia, sums up nearly 20 years of fascination.

On Saturday in Kansas City, Zeki Amdouni will face, in the World Cup quarter-finals, the man who shaped his footballing destiny: Lionel Messi.

This post, half-serious and half-ironic, reveals a long-standing and genuine admiration. Asked by Blick last January about his role model, the Geneva striker recalled the turning point in his teenage years.

As a child, he idolised Cristiano Ronaldo, "for his hairstyle, his boots, his style."

Then, at 13, everything changed: "When I really understood football, there was only one player for me: Lionel Messi."

When asked if he could ever meet his idol at a World Cup, he replied without hesitation: "That would be a dream."

That dream, which once seemed so distant, is now about to come true. After the penalty shootout win over Colombia, his emotion was clear in his reaction on RTS.

"It's a dream to play against him," Amdouni said.

However, the Snapchat message didn't please everyone. Some Swiss fans felt it was inappropriate ahead of a World Cup quarter-final, believing such enthusiasm for the opposition was out of place at this stage of the competition.

Amdouni was quick to reassure Nati supporters in the comments, promising to show "zero mercy" to Messi and Argentina when the time comes.

The 'Swiss Messi'

This open fascination is more than just a footnote: from the start of his professional career, it has fuelled a comparison that has stuck with Amdouni. In 2023, the analytics firm StatsBomb searched for the European players under 24 statistically closest to Messi.

Two names stood out: Xavi Simons, a product of La Masia, and Amdouni, then at Basel. When he moved to Burnley the following summer, Spanish newspaper Marca picked up the label in a now-famous headline: "Burnley sign the Swiss Messi."

A comparison that would have seemed absurd just four years earlier, when Amdouni was still playing in the Swiss fourth division.

What justifies the comparison, beyond the stats, is a recognisable playing style: a technical false nine, more focused on build-up play and the final pass than on physicality.

"As a kid, I was always a striker because I was a good finisher, but I was never the big centre-forward who only touches the ball five times a half," he told UEFA.com.

"I've always been a technical player. I like to be involved in the play, to be on the ball and to provide assists. That's still what I do, but now, if I can score myself, even better."

Vincent Kompany, who brought him to Burnley from Basel for around £15 million, described him on arrival as a complete player.

"He's a great talent we've been following for a long time. He's a real attacking threat: he has quality in the final pass and can score himself. He's a very intelligent player, technically gifted and works extremely hard."

Behind the flattering label, Amdouni's journey is that of a street footballer, shaped far from traditional academies. Born in Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, just over the border in France, to a Turkish father who ran a kiosk near the Geneva hospital and a Tunisian mother, he grew up in modest family circumstances.

At 13, a serious foot injury forced him out of Servette, his boyhood club.

"They told me at first they wouldn't kick anyone out for being injured. But I still had to leave," he recalled, the wound still raw years later. 

"My family wanted me to keep studying, but in the end, they accepted my decision."

Cruciate ligament rupture and World Cup doubts

He bounced back at Meyrin FC, spending two seasons there before joining the youth teams of Etoile Carouge, a Swiss fourth division club, at 15, where he was spotted by Jean-Michel Aeby, then first-team coach in the 1st league and looking for attacking reinforcements.

He made his first-team debut in November 2017, aged 16, and never looked back.

"He has incredible quality, he's an almost complete footballer. He's good with both feet, good in the air, a great link-up player, a real team man," enthused Aeby, who also highlighted his temperament.

"Zeki is quite reserved, very discreet, but that's a strength, because he doesn't get rattled even in the most heated situations."

In June 2021, the young Geneva talent signed for FC Lausanne-Sport. Servette, his formative club, would have loved to bring back their prodigal son, but Amdouni chose to join their local rivals, where he scored his first career hat-trick against the Grenat.

Next stop was Basel, where he exploded in the 2022/23 season: 22 goals and five assists in 52 matches, and top scorer in the Conference League.

This rapid rise took him to Burnley, but his progress was abruptly halted in summer 2025 by a ruptured cruciate ligament in his right knee, during pre-season, just after returning from a successful loan at Benfica, where he had scored nine goals.

It was a tough blow for Murat Yakin, who had made him a starter after EURO 2024, but the coach never lost touch: he visited him in England and invited him to the March training camp in Basel, even though Amdouni was not yet fit.

"Of course, the World Cup was always at the back of my mind, but after such an injury, nine months out, my priority was just to get back on the pitch," he told Keystone-ATS.

He had to wait until May for his return to the Premier League. A few substitute appearances were enough to convince Yakin to take him to North America.

The gamble paid off. Coming on in the 103rd minute of the last-16 match against Colombia, Amdouni coolly converted his penalty in the decisive shootout (4-3), alongside Granit Xhaka, Cedric Itten and Ruben Vargas, with only Manuel Akanji missing his attempt.

He explained his method openly to RTS: "It's a situation where I feel comfortable. I already showed it at the Euros." He waits until the last moment, watches the keeper, and shoots the other way.

That execution sent Switzerland into the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 1954, the year they hosted the tournament, and gave him, at last, the moment he had dreamed of since childhood.