Bristol Rovers looked to Switzerland’s second division to sign striker Fabrizio Cavegn during the summer transfer window

Daniel Hargraves Bristol Rovers reporter

07:00, 16 Sep 2025

Fabrizio Cavegn celebrates scoring his first league goal for Bristol Rovers(Image: Steve Taylor/PPAUK)

Bristol Rovers director of football Ricky Martin has provided an insight into the process of bringing Swiss striker Fabrizio Cavegn to the club during the summer transfer window, explaining that the opportunity to look outside of England for transfer targets was and will continue to be provided by the club’s ownership.

Cavegn signed a three-year deal in north Bristol with the option of a further season on the eve of Rovers’ campaign and has scored three goals so far. The 23-year-old opened his League Two account in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Barrow, having netted a brace in the 4-4 draw against Tottenham Hotspur Under-21s in the EFL Trophy.

Signing players from abroad is unorthodox for the Gas, whose recruitment team identified Cavegn while he was playing in Switzerland’s second division with FC Vaduz.

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In an interview with BBC Radio Bristol, conducted before Cavegn scored his first league goal, Martin detailed how Rovers first identified the striker as well as how they brought him to the club.

Asked if that process is more tricky than signing a player within England, the Gas’ director of football declared: “Of course it is, and I want to give credit to the owners here. From day one of speaking to the club, they made it really clear that they wanted to use their wildcards. That’s the ESC (Elite Significant Contribution) spots that we talked about. That’s what Fabrizio is. He’s one of our two. We can sign two in this window under the new rules and Brexit etc.

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“The owners made it really clear from day one that they wanted us to go and recruit in this area and that was really exciting for me, knowing that I can look further afield. There’s some limitations and there’s some restrictions on what types and what countries and no doubt there are fans out there going, ‘why didn’t we sign him?’ Sometimes those players aren’t available because there’s certain criteria that they have to meet.

“I don’t want to bore people with the process but it’s something that we’ve got to do behind the scenes to ensure that they are meeting the criteria so that they get an extension, a work permit, so that they can come into the country and play because that’s the Brexit rules and what UEFA and FIFA have created.

“It’s really exciting and we’ve done that. We’ve brought Fabrizio in and we’ve got one more spot. I would actively like to fill that. If it’s not in the January window it will be next summer. I want to fill that as quickly as we can and hopefully Fabrizio will help us demonstrate why it’s worth looking outside of England and looking further afield.”

Having not arrived in time to play a part in Rovers’ opening day 1-0 loss to Harrogate Town, Cavegn has since featured in the seven League Two matches, starting four. He was also a substitute in cup matches against Cambridge United and Tottenham Under-21s.

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The striker was unfortunate not to open his account in the league in a 3-2 win over Newport County the weekend prior and managed to get that coveted first League Two goal when showing good reactions to tap home a header down from Promise Omochere.

As well as playing in the Challenge League, Switzerland’s second tier, FC Vaduz, who are based in Lichtenstein, entered the Europa Conference League qualifying stage this summer having won the Lichtenstein Cup last season.

Across all competitions, Cavegn scored 23 goals and registered five assists last term having contributed another 14 goals and four assists the campaign prior.

After seeing the striker make a pleasing start to life in BS7, supporters have been intrigued to know how exactly Rovers were able to land the 23-year-old’s signature, and identify him in the first place.

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“The recruitment team do some great work behind the scenes and they flagged up the player,” Martin explained. “They flagged up a few players. We had this benchmarking data that we go for so data has certainly driven this. We then went out to watch the player live on a couple of occasions so that’s part of what our recruitment strategy looked like regarding recruiting this player. It was led by data and benchmarking. We got lots of reports. We then watched him play on video and then coding those games and then watched the player live twice. On the back of that, I got involved and made a deal happen.

“That’s the process of bringing a player like Fabrizio into the club.

“Football now is one language. It’s universal. We spoke to the clubs. We’re very fortunate that a lot of people speak English and it was very easy to have that conversation with the club, the player and his agent.

“I’m used to that process. I’ve dealt with and signed many players from outside of England so I’m aware of what the process looks like and we got that process underway straight away and then went through the application. That’s why it took a little bit longer, but we knew that as well. It didn’t faze us. It took an extra couple of days but that’s the kind of consequence when you’re looking farther afield.”

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