Glenn Hodel (born 22 November 1996) is a Swiss beach soccer player who plays as a forward for the Switzerland national team.
He is the nephew of former Swiss association football international, Marc Hodel.
Career Hodel is an Aargau native. The similarity of his name to that of former England midfielder, Glenn Hoddle, is not a coincidence – his father, a fan of Tottenham Hotspur, gave his son the first name Glenn in honour of Hoddle.
He originally pursued association football but switched to beach soccer aged 14. He debuted in the Swiss National League aged 15, and subsequently made his debut for Switzerland in 2013 in a friendly versus Poland aged 16. Aged just 18, he was top scorer of the 2015 Swiss League season. That year, he represented the Swiss national team at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup for the first time, and has since appeared at three more editions (2017, 2019, 2021). At the latter, he won the Golden Boot (top scorer award) with 12 goals, despite being suspended for one match.
In 2022, he surpassed 150 caps for Switzerland, and his goal in the final versus Portugal helped Switzerland become Euro Beach Soccer League champions. He was then European club champion with Israeli side Kfar Qassem at the 2023 Euro Winners Cup and won the gold medal with Switzerland at the 2023 European Games (albeit he did not feature in the gold medal match itself due to injury).
Statistics Competition Year Apps Goals Ref.FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2015 2 0 2017 4 5 2019 4 2 2021 5 12 Total 15 19 —
Honours As of 2023.
The following is a selection, not an exhaustive list, of the major international honours Hodel has achieved:
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Third place (1): 2021 Golden Boot (1): 2021 Euro Beach Soccer League Winner (1): 2022 European Games Gold medal (1): 2023 Bronze medal (1): 2019 UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Runner-up (1): 2016 Euro Winners Cup Winner (1): 2023 Beach Soccer Stars World's best players shortlist (3): 2021, 2022, 2023
References
External links Glenn Hodel , profile at Beach Soccer Worldwide Glenn Hodel , profile at Swiss Football Association (in German)