Nicolas Schindelholz

Schindelholz played his youth football and began his playing career with local semi-professional club SC Dornach. At the age of 16, he made his debut as a central defender for his home club Dornach in the 1. Liga, at that time the fourth tier of the Swiss football league system. Immediately FC Basel discovered him and he moved to their youth department. He played in their U-18 team during the 2005–06 season, under coach Patrick Rahmen and his assistant Marco Walker and with them won both the Swiss U-18 championship and the U-19/18 national cup that season. The following season he advanced to their U-21 team, who played in the third tier, and they won their division and became Swiss champions at U-21 level. A year later, the team defended their title as division (group2) winners in the 2007–08 season, and became Swiss champions at U-21 level again. By then Schindelholz had long become the team captain. Another year later, in the 2008–09 season, Schindelholz led the team to become division (group2) winners and Swiss champions at the U-21 level for the third successive time. Murat Yakin was appointed as new head coach of FC Thun in summer 2009 and one of his first actions was to acquire the services of Schindelholz and Timm Klose, both of whom could not make it to Basel's first team under new head coach Thorsten Fink. The team played in the second tier and Schindelholz achieved 27 league and two cup appearances during the 2009–10 Challenge League season. They were division…

Nicolas Schindelholz was married, and the couple had four children. His brother Stefan was also youth footballer with FC Basel but decided to play at amateur level with SC Dornach. The Schindelholz brothers inherited their fascination for football from their parents. Their father, a businessman, is an influential figure at his hometown club SC Dornach. He was a coach, sports director and then president. Father Schindelholz has been involved in the club for years.

FC Basel Swiss champion at U-18 level: 2005–06 Swiss Cup at U-19/U-18 level: 2005–06 Swiss champion at U-21 level: 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09 Thun Swiss Challenge League: 2009–10