Charles Pickel

Charles Pickel
Pickel with Grenoble in 2020
Personal information
Full name Charles Monginda Pickel
Date of birth (1997-05-15) 15 May 1997
Place of birth Solothurn, Switzerland
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position Defensive midfielder[1]
Team information
Current team
 Espanyol
Number 18
Youth career
–2011 Solothurn
2011–2016 Basel
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2015–2017 Basel U-21 38 (3)
2016–2017 Basel 3 (0)
2017–2019 Grasshoppers 20 (0)
2018 → FC Schaffhausen (loan) 14 (0)
2018–2019 → Neuchâtel Xamax (loan) 26 (2)
2019–2021 Grenoble 64 (3)
2021–2022 Famalicão 29 (0)
2022–2025 Cremonese 91 (6)
2025– Espanyol 17 (0)
International career‡
2014–2015 Switzerland U18 6 (0)
2015–2016 Switzerland U19 4 (0)
2015–2018 Switzerland U20 10 (1)
2023– DR Congo 34 (1)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 15 March 2026
‡ National team caps and goals as of 31 March 2026

Charles Monginda Pickel (born 15 May 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for La Liga club Espanyol. Born in Switzerland, he plays for the DR Congo national team.

Club career

Pickel started his youth football with FC Solothurn. In Summer 2011, he transferred to the youth department of FC Basel and played in their U-16 and advanced via their U-17 and U-18 team to their U-21 team in 2015. On 23 December 2015, he signed a two-and-a-half-year professional contract, but remained with the U-21 team.[2] On 16 May 2016, Pickel was called up to the first team by head coach Urs Fischer. He played his Swiss Super League debut for the Basel first team in the starting eleven, but Basel suffered a 0–4 away defeat against Luzern.[3] Basel won the Swiss Super League championship at the end of the 2015–16 Super League season. For the club it was the seventh title in a row and their 19th championship title in total.[4]

Pickel joined Basel's first team definitively for their 2016–17 season under head coach Urs Fischer. Although he appeared in ten test matches, he played only one more league match, with the team in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park on 4 February 2017 as Basel won 4–0 against Lugano.[5] Basel announced on 1 March that Pickel was leaving the club.[6] With the U-21 Pickel had played 38 goals scoring three goals. During a short time with Basel's first team Pickel played a total of 13 games without scoring a goal. Three of these games were in the Swiss Super League and ten were friendly games.[7]

On 1 March 2017, Basel announced that Pickel had signed for Grasshopper Club.[8] GC announced that he had signed a four-and-a-half-year contract with them.[9] Pickel played his debut for his new club on 5 March 2017 in the Swissporarena in the starting eleven against Luzern. He played the entire game and it ended in a 1–1 draw.

On 1 July 2019 GC announced that Pickel was transferring to Grenoble.[10]

On 22 July 2022, it was announced that Pickel had joined newly promoted Serie A club Cremonese.[11]

International career

Born in Switzerland, Pickel is of Congolese and Swiss descent.[12] Pickel played one international game for the Swiss U-15. He played his debut for the Swiss U-18 as midfielder on 2 September 2014 as they drew 2–2 with the Swedish U-18. He played his debut for the Swiss U-19 as defender on 1 September 2015 as they drew 1–1 with Portugal U-19.[13] His last game for the Switzerland U-20 was on 27 March 2018 in the away game against Italy U-20, where Pickel played as right-back and the Swiss won 3–2.

Pickel was called up to the DR Congo national team for a set of 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches in September 2023.[14] He debuted with them in a 2–0 win over Sudan on 9 September 2023, assisting his side's first goal.[15]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 15 March 2026
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National cup[a] League Cup Europe Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Basel U-21 2014–15 Swiss Promotion League 8 0 — — — — 8 0
2015–16 Swiss Promotion League 18 2 — — — — 18 2
2016–17 Swiss Promotion League 12 1 — — — — 12 1
Total 38 3 — — — — 38 3
Basel 2015–16 Swiss Super League 2 0 — — — — 2 0
2016–17 Swiss Super League 1 0 — — — — 1 0
Total 3 0 — — — — 3 0
Grasshoppers 2016–17 Swiss Super League 12 0 — — — — 12 0
2017–18 Swiss Super League 7 0 2 0 — — — 9 0
2018–19 Swiss Super League 1 0 0 0 — — — 1 0
Total 20 0 2 0 — — — 22 0
FC Schaffhausen (loan) 2017–18 Swiss Challenge League 14 0 — — — — 14 0
Neuchâtel Xamax (loan) 2018–19 Swiss Super League 26 2 2 0 — — 2[b] 0 30 2
Grenoble 2019–20 Ligue 2 26 1 1 0 1 0 — — 28 0
2020–21 Ligue 2 35 1 2 0 — — 2[c] 0 39 1
2021–22 Ligue 2 3 1 0 0 — — — 39 1
Total 64 3 3 0 1 0 — — 68 3
Famalicão 2021–22 Primeira Liga 29 0 3 0 2 0 — — 34 0
Cremonese 2022–23 Serie A 33 1 5 1 — — — 38 2
2023–24 Serie B 27 3 1 1 — — 4[d] 0 32 4
2024–25 Serie B 31 2 1 0 — — 2[d] 0 34 2
Total 91 6 7 2 — — 6 0 104 8
Espanyol 2025–26 La Liga 17 1 2 0 — — — 19 1
Career total 399 13 19 2 3 0 0 0 10 0 331 15
  1. ^ Includes Swiss Cup, Coupe de France, Taça de Portugal, Coppa Italia, Copa del Rey
  2. ^ Appearances in relegation/promotion play-offs
  3. ^ Appearances in Ligue 1 relegation/promotion play-offs
  4. ^ a b Appearances in Serie B play-offs

International

As of match played 31 March 2026
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
DR Congo 2023 5 0
2024 15 0
2025 11 1
2026 3 0
Total 34 1
Scores and results list DR Congo's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Pickel goal.
List of international goals scored by Charles Pickel
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 25 March 2025 Nouadhibou Municipal Stadium, Nouadhibou, Mauritania  Mauritania 1–0 2–0 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification

Honours

FC Basel

References

  1. ^ Charles Pickel at WorldFootball.net
  2. ^ FC Basel 1893 (3 December 2015). "Charles Pickel unterzeichnet einen Profivertrag". Charles Pickel signs his first professional contract (in German). FC Basel 1893 AG. Retrieved 16 November 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Marti, Caspar (16 May 2016). "0:4 – Der FCB bleibt ohne Chancen beim FC Luzern". 0:4 – FCB had no chance against FC Luzern (in German). FC Basel 1893 AG. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  4. ^ SRF (30 April 2016). "FC Basel holt den 19. Meistertitel". FC Basel wins their 19th championship title (in German). Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF). Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  5. ^ Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv” (4 February 2017). "FC Basel - FC Lugano 4:0 (3:0)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  6. ^ Kägi, Melanie (1 March 2017). "Charles Pickel wechselt zum Grasshopper Club Zürich". Charles Pickel is moving to Grasshopper Club Zurich (in German). Telebasel online. Archived from the original on 21 November 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  7. ^ Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv” (2022). "Charles Pickel - FCB statistic". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  8. ^ FC Basel 1893 (2017). "Charles Pickel wechselt zum Grasshopper Club Zürich". FC Basel 1893. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ GCZ (2017). "Charles-Pickel zu GC". Grasshopper Club Zürich. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  10. ^ Grasshopper Club Zürich (1 July 2019). "Charles Pickel wechselt zu Grenoble". Charles Pickel joins Grenoble (in German). gcz.ch. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  11. ^ "Pickel nuovo calciatore della Cremonese" [Pickel is the new player of Cremonese]. U.S. Cremonese. 22 July 2022. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  12. ^ Kad, par (15 May 2019). "Portrait de Charles Pickel". Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  13. ^ SFV (2015). "Kader U-19 Charles Pickel". SFV. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  14. ^ "Elim/CAN 2023 : avec Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu et Charles Monginda Pickel, la liste de Sébastien Desabre pour le Soudan". 24 August 2023.
  15. ^ "DR Congo secure Afcon qualification". SuperSport.
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