Carlos Varela was a skilled, energetic and goal-scoring player. He believed in a comeback even when behind. Fast, faster, fastest. Carlos Varela's football career progressed at an incredible speed. He received his first football license at 14 as a player of FC City. When he first appeared in the starting lineup of the traditional NLA club Servette FC, he was 18 years old. Shortly afterwards, in 1999, Carlos Varela and his teammates celebrated their first Swiss championship win. Two years later, they also won the cup in the Calvinstadt. The Grenats were once again at the top. For Carlos Varela, who grew up in Geneva with family roots in A Coruña, it continued to move forward. He completed his apprenticeship as an electrician, but he already knew that he would fully focus on football. At FC Basel, to which he was transferred in the winter break 1998/1999, the young man met stars like Sascha Rytschkow, Argemiro Veiga and current Luzern coach Mario Frick. Stefan Huber was in goal. Also present were the well-known Baslers Mario Cantaluppi, Massimo Ceccaroni & Co. Guy Mathez, the then FCB coach, had individual talks with some players due to disciplinary issues, it was certainly not easy with this assembly of character heads. And then came the news one day that Christian Gross would become FCB coach. With that and the later move to the new Joggeli, things changed a lot at Basel. But Carlos Varela was still part of it. In the red and blue dress of FC Basel, Varela experienced many highlights.