From the small "Tschuttibildli" to probably the world's largest footballer portrait
This is the story of the man from Sursee. No wait, that's not true. It's the story of his portrait on the pitch of the "Schlottermilch" stadium in Sursee. And how his face got there. Thanks to the man from Basel. The man from Grenchen also plays a role here. But first things first.
At some point, SRF commentator Sascha Ruefer from Grenchen coins the term "man from Sursee". He was referring to Haris Seferovic. With his goals, he played a decisive role in the Swiss national football team's qualification for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. At the same time, a man in Basel is thinking about footballer pictures and has an idea.
A few months later, two drones hover 500 metres above the Schlottermilch stadium in Sursee. Below, Stevie Fiedler sprays white lines onto the pitch with pinpoint accuracy. Stevie Fiedler is the man from Basel. He is a graphic designer and draws the Swiss national team for the "tschutti heftli". tschutti heftli? Huh? Creative minds from Lucerne, and football fans themselves, launched this alternative to the Panini collector's cards during Euro 2008. The sixth edition is already being published this year. The 32 teams are each designed by international artists. Instead of the same old footballer photos, small works of art are created that also provide an overview of contemporary portrait and design styles.
Collecting and drawing
As a young boy, Stevie Fiedler collects baseball cards. His mother comes from Bern, his father from St. Louis in the US state of Missouri. Collecting baseball cards is a tradition here. His grandparents in the USA provide the supplies. Stevie now owns thousands of these collectible cards. His second passion is drawing. "I've been drawing since I was five years old," he says at the start of our conversation. Today, Stevie works as an art director in his own agency for visual communication in Basel.
Drawing becomes a profession, collecting remains a passion. So last summer, Stevie applied for one of the 32 teams at tschutti heftli. The task: draw Maradona. The jury: high-calibre, including former US national team player Alexi Lalas. That's right, the one with the red fuzzy head and the mega goatee. I want to know from Stevie how he came up with the idea of the white lines on the pitch.
"I wanted to do something that was as close as possible to the players and the coach, but also to the groundsman and everyone involved in football in general. And above all, I wanted to make something that was close to the fans. I first had the image of tactics discussions in my head. All those arrows and crosses on a blackboard. From there, it was only a small mental step to the green pitch and the white chalk lines. That's something that every fan sees week after week in the stadium or on TV".
This idea was well received by the jury. Stevie came out on top from around 500 competitors and was awarded the contract to design one of the 32 teams. But not just any team, he gets to draw the Swiss team.
«Like Christmas and a birthday combined.»
Humble as he is, I have to ask first before he says with a blissful smile on his face: "Being able to shape the national team as a Swiss makes me proud. It's a great honour for me and feels like Christmas and a birthday at the same time."
In "Adobe Illustrator", he draws the team (including all the supplementary players), the coach, a crest and a self-portrait. And right from the start, he had the idea of realising the whole thing not only on 50×70 millimetres, but also on a real football pitch. But where and which player should it be? The idea of drawing Haris Seferovic ultimately came from Silvan Glanzmann, the founder of tschutti heftli.
«Haris has more than earned it.»
Haris Seferovic is now scoring goals in Europe's major leagues. As a F-Junior, he does this for FC Sursee. His family still lives in "Soorsi" today. And he immediately gave his consent when he heard about the plan to draw his picture on the pitch at Schlottermilch stadium.
"I think Haris has more than earned this extra feature with his goals," says Stevie Fiedler. "What's more, I think he embodies the two sides of football very well. Here the down-to-earth Sursee, there the glamorous Benfica Lisbon". And how does the little Tschutti picture ultimately become what is probably the world's biggest footballer portrait?
Team player
This question also reveals Stevie Fiedler's modesty. "Firstly, I have to say thank you to my team at 'eyeloveyou', Martin, Marleen and Zoe. I could never have done it without their support. And of course, a big thank you also goes to FC Sursee and the tschutti heftli team."
To put it in footballing terms: Stevie volleys the ball superbly into the crossbar from 20 metres and in the subsequent on-field interview, he first emphasises the role of his team-mates. But how does a shoot-out like this work?
«One mistake and that's it.»
"Such a large image is of course only recognisable as such from a certain distance," explains Stevie. "So it quickly became clear that we would document the whole thing with a drone. However, drone batteries have a relatively short runtime of just 15 to 20 minutes. We therefore needed quite a few spare batteries for the half-day shoot.
As we wanted to show the entire drawing process as a time-lapse video, the drone had to hold a certain position and then return to it after each battery change. We solved this by using fixed coordinates. So that I didn't have to do my work 'blind', we streamed a live image from a second drone to a display on the chalk trolley. So I knew my position on the field. Marleen then took the next position and signalled with the corner flag where I had to go with the chalk trolley".
Sounds pretty complicated to me, and it is. And it gets even more complicated as Stevie continues. "Despite some automatic stabilisation of the drones, they were occasionally exposed to a few strong gusts of wind. To put this into perspective: a few centimetres of deviation at an altitude of 500 metres results in a difference of several metres on the ground".
So the margin for error is zero. What would have happened if a mistake had been made? "We couldn't make a mistake, we only had one attempt," Stevie says as if shot from a cannon. What is probably the world's largest footballer portrait is created on an area of 104×67 metres. And Haris Seferovic likes it.
And what do you think of your self-portrait? That's what I want to know from Stevie Fiedler at the end. "I think I got my (long pause) smile right and was able to show with a few strokes that I have a slightly overhanging upper lip". Says and laughs heartily.
From radio journalist to product tester and storyteller, jogger to gravel bike novice and fitness enthusiast with barbells and dumbbells. I'm excited to see where the journey'll take me next.