Basel make former Liverpool star Xherdan Shaqiri incredible promise after stunning title win

In a year Liverpool have been crowned Premier League champions, former attacker Xherdan Shaqiri has won the Swiss Super League with FC Basel

Former Liverpool attacker Xherdan Shaqiri could become immortalised with a statue after playing an integral role all season long to inspire his boyhood club to their first league title in eight years. The Swiss national star has contributed towards 41 goals in all competitions this season.

Shaqiri's footballing journey began as a 10-year-old in Basel's academy, progressing into the first-team before going on to pave a career with Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Stoke City and Liverpool between 2018 and 2021, making 63 appearances in an era the Premier League, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup were won under Jurgen Klopp. He moved on to Lyon, then Chicago Fire before making a hero's return to captain his boyhood club this year.

Now, FC Basel have ended their eight-year wait to get their hands back on the Swiss Super League trophy, with Shaqiri playing a pivotal role in their success.

And when rivals Servette failed to beat Young Boys on Sunday, the title was confirmed for Basel.

But that outcome would not have been possible without Shaqiri's own efforts, especially since the beginning of March. Over the past two-and-a-half months he has recorded 10 goals and nine assists, including a hat-trick of assists against title rivals Servette and a regular hat-trick of goals in the span of nine minutes on Saturday, May 10 in his side's 5-2 win over Lugano.

Title celebrations had to be put on ice for 24 hours, however, with the club needing Servette to draw or lose in order to hand them the trophy. The club ended up drawing 0-0 at home to Young Boys, though, ending Basel's run without winning the title.

Basel had plans in place in case their rivals faltered and at 8.30pm a giant congregation gathered in the town centre to celebrate with players and club staff.

There were particularly stunning scenes as red and blue flares lit up the evening sky, and on Shaqiri's Instagram stories a video depicted him walking onto a balcony as thousands of supporters chanted his name repeatedly.

Local media covering the celebrations spoke extremely highly of the former Liverpool star's influence.

Basler Zeitung wrote: "Perhaps they will build a monument to Xherdan Shaqiri.

"If you think about what you think of first when you think of this success, then it's conceivable. Because whenever people talk about FC Basel's 21st championship title, his name will be mentioned in the same breath."

And that honour appears very plausible, as club president David Degen praised the player and told blue Sport: "By signing Shaq, we wanted to set an example. Shaq has achieved this.

"He could have taken the easy route, collected money in Saudi Arabia or whatever. But no, he came back to FCB.

"That also puts enormous pressure on him personally. He withstood everything. Hats off, great cinema. I told him: 'I'll build you a statue'."

This means Shaqiri can share similar joy to a number of former Anfield teammates celebrating their second career English league title and the Reds' 20th of all-time.

Basel will also enter next season's Champions League at the qualifying stage, meaning they have the opportunity to join Liverpool in the league phase, where a reunion between old friends could be on the cards.