Ramon Vega announced on Wednesday his intention to run for president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association -FIFA-, which will hold its presidential election in March 2027. The former Switzerland international presented an eleven-page manifesto proposing governance reform, restoring trust in the institution and giving those who work and compete in football a greater voice. His opening argument draws on the two careers he has built: “I’m standing because my life prepared me to serve the game.” He hopes to challenge Gianni Infantino, but his path to this announcement began long before he entered football politics.
Vega, 55, was born in Olten, Switzerland, and grew up as the youngest of five children in a family of Spanish immigrants. He became a professional footballer, trained in banking while playing and later built a second career in finance. Representing his country of birth also changed his sense of belonging: in an interview with ‘Square Mile’, he recalled the contrast between initially feeling unaccepted and later wearing the Swiss cross on his national team shirt. Years afterwards, he faced another struggle for recognition: his name opened doors in business, but many people still saw the footballer before the financier.
A career beyond Tottenham
His most prominent spell was at Tottenham, although he arrived in London after winning three league titles with Grasshopper and playing for Italy’s Cagliari. He earned 23 caps for Switzerland and appeared at Euro 1996. At Tottenham, he made 84 competitive appearances and won the 1999 League Cup; he subsequently joined Celtic on loan, helping the club complete the Scottish domestic treble in 2000–01. He scored twice against Aberdeen on his debut for the Glasgow side. His career continued at Watford and ended at Créteil in France.
The 1999 Wembley final remains one of the experiences he has recalled most often. As he told ‘RG’, he was carrying a stress fracture in his ankle and doctors had warned him about the risks of continuing to play. “I need to play. This is the most important period of my career, I can win something for the club,” he recalled telling them. He played the full 90 minutes of the victory over Leicester and later underwent surgery, with a lengthy recovery that changed his position within the team. That period eventually led him to Celtic, where he found regular playing time and further trophies before approaching the end of his professional career.
Football in the morning, banking in the afternoon
Preparation for what came next had begun during his teenage years. When he passed a trial to join Grasshopper, his mother opposed any move that would mean abandoning his education. The club found an arrangement that allowed him to continue studying, train in banking and finance and work at Credit Suisse. “In the morning I trained with Grasshopper, and in the afternoon I did my placement at Credit Suisse in Zurich,” he told ‘Vozpópuli’ in 2012. At the time, he resented staying in to study while his friends went out or preparing for an exam after a match. “It wasn’t easy,” he admitted to ‘RG’, before expressing gratitude for his mother’s condition: no education, no football.
While playing, Vega followed his own investments and advised teammates, according to that 2012 interview. In 2002, he helped establish Duet Group, whose activities included asset management, investment funds, private equity and real estate. His education did not prevent a difficult transition. “When I retired from football, the first two or three years were the hardest years of my life,” he told ‘Square Mile’. His fame generated interest, but not always the confidence needed for people to invest with him. In 2025, he told ‘RG’ that he had come close to giving up after two years because he was struggling to be taken seriously in finance.
Business and team management
In 2008, he founded Vega Swiss Asset Management, with a model he described as personalised, transparent and focused on client liquidity. His business career also included property projects and an unsuccessful attempt to acquire Portsmouth in 2009. His asset management firm eventually reached its own endpoint: the British company register records that Vega Swiss Asset Management UK LLP was dissolved on 1 May 2023 following liquidation. The interview published by ‘RG’ in 2025 describes a subsequent period advising investors, clubs and federations, travelling between London, Budapest and Dubai.
Vega also sought to bring his sporting experience into corporate leadership through From Pitch to Boardroom, a project developed with Stuart Blyth. His approach began with understanding people and building teams before making changes within an organisation. “I don’t know any football manager who goes onto the pitch himself if the striker doesn’t score,” he told ‘Square Mile’, discussing leaders who prefer to fix everything personally rather than manage their colleagues. In his latest announcement, he returns to the relationship between leadership and an organisation: “The President must serve FIFA — not control it.” He proposes more transparent and inclusive decision-making and a fairer, more effective distribution of football’s resources.
A longstanding ambition
In his manifesto, he also gives a prominent role to his Hungarian wife, Claudia, with whom he has spent years travelling through different parts of the football world. According to Vega, she held technical and operational roles in international men’s competitions before also working in management and institutional relations. Beyond those projects, the former player spoke in 2015 about his interests in cycling and opera, visits to relatives in Spain and charity matches with Tottenham’s former players. He fondly recalled supporters of the London club and Celtic still recognising him in the street years after he stopped playing.
His interest in the FIFA presidency is not new: he expressed that intention in 2015, 2019 and 2022. His priorities now include player welfare and access for supporters: “We need a responsible international calendar that protects their health and puts quality before quantity.” Vega says he has the backing of the five member associations required to submit his candidacy. The deadline for submitting documentation is 18 November; alongside those endorsements, candidates must demonstrate an active role in football for at least two of the preceding five years and pass an eligibility check. The election is scheduled for 18 March 2027 in Rabat, Morocco.
