The Czech hockey players will challenge the home team in Zurich as part of their second appearance at the Swiss Games. The 20-year-old striker Attilio Biasca, who has Czech roots, should also start in the jersey with the Helvetic cross. However, he does not remember the Czech national team fondly lately.
Less than a year ago, Biasca led the Swiss as captain at the World Junior Championships in Canada and met the Czech team in the quarterfinals.
The wild Czechs swept the opponents 9:1, Jiří Kulich managed the win with two goals and two assists. The ride of coach Radim Rulík’s wards ended with a narrow final defeat against Canada.
Now Biasca runs into Rulík’s choice again. The Czech coach promoted him from the juniors to the adult national team, and the Swiss youth was called up to the A national team for the first time.
Biasca was born in Zug, but his mother Gabriela comes from the Czech Republic, specifically from Neplachovice near Opava, from where she went to Switzerland to model at the age of 18. And she stayed there for good.
“I worked as a model not only in Switzerland, but all over Europe and the world. I met my husband in Switzerland, I’ve been living there for 30 years,” she said in perfect Czech in an interview with Hokej.cz last August, when she came to support her son who was delayed by covid junior championship.
Even Biasca speaks Czech at a basic level, even though he grew up in Switzerland and rarely traveled to his mother’s native country. “I don’t have that much time, but I like to visit my family sometimes. I still have to improve my Czech language,” the attacker laughed.
“I’ve already played a lot of games against the Czechs, I understand them and I can talk to them a little, but I’m concentrating on hockey,” continued Biasca.
His father, Nicola, formerly played junior hockey, now works as a doctor and was a former member of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) concussion and player safety group.
And since he comes from the canton of Ticino near the Italian border, the Biasci speak German, Czech and also Italian at home. “I see myself as a mix of everything,” said Attilio Biasca after his first nomination to the adult national team.
He spent the last three seasons in the Canadian Junior League in Halifax, where he played with Czech David Moravec. However, he did not go through the NHL draft and decided to return home this year. He established himself on the Zug roster and collected six goals and four assists in 23 games in the Swiss league.
There, he meets Jan Kovář again in the dressing room.
Biasca represented Switzerland once at the U18 World Championship and three times at the U20 Championship. Nevertheless, after being nominated by Patrick Fischer, he became nervous.
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