«A milestone» – 7 players with a THA background at the U20 World Cup

The U20 World Cup always takes place at the turn of the year. And the 2026 edition, which begins for Switzerland on Sunday night with the match against the USA, is particularly worth following from a Zug perspective. Seven players – or more than a quarter – of the definitive 25-man World Championship squad announced on Wednesday morning come from The Hockey Academy in Zug.

With Robin Antenen, Loris Wey and Mischa Geisser, three current Zug players are taking part, as well as Christian Kirsch (Kitchener Rangers / CAN), Ludvig Johnson (Fribourg-Gottéron), Leon Muggli (Hershey Bears / USA) and Kevin Haas (Thurgau), four other players from the EVZ The Hockey Academy.

The fact that so many players from the EVZ organisation are in the World Championship squad of the U20 national team shows once again how well and sustainably work is being done in the young talents and in The Hockey Academy training programme. Roland Schmid, Head of The Hockey Academy: “It is an impressive milestone for our youth development work and underlines the success of The Hockey Academy.”

The seven players from Zug’s The Hockey Academy have been in Rochester since mid-December and played three preparation games with the Swiss team: A 2-1 win on penalties against Minnesota State University Mankato (NCAA), a 6-1 triumph against Denmark and a 3-7 loss to Sweden.

The matches of the Swiss U20 team

Sunday, 28 December 2025, 00:00 CET: Switzerland – USA

Sunday, 28 December 2025 20:00 CET: Switzerland – Sweden

Tuesday, 30 December 2025, 20:00 CET: Switzerland – Sweden

Wednesday, 31 December 2025, 19:00 CET: Switzerland – Slovakia

Friday, 2 January 2026: Quarter-finals

Sunday, 3 January 2026: Semi-finals

Tuesday, 5 January 2026: Finals

All Swiss matches will be broadcast live on MySports and free of charge in the MySports app.