23-year-old midfielder becomes our ninth summer acquisition

Reading Football Club are very pleased to welcome Sandro Wieser to Madejski Stadium, who has put pen to paper on a three-year deal which sees him become the latest addition to Jaap Stam’s squad.The 23-year-old Liechtensteiner moves to Madejski Stadium on a free transfer, having spent last season representing Swiss top tier outfit FC Thun during their sixth-place league finish in 2015-16.Manager Jaap Stam said, "Sandro is a left-footed defensive midfield player who has been playing his football out in Switzerland. He is a good passer of the ball, he has a good physique, good technique and I'm sure he will prove a good addition to the squad."The midfielder’s professional career began in Switzerland – he moved to join FC Basel’s Academy back in 2006, having previously played youth football with hometown club FC Vaduz.After regularly representing Basel’s Under-21 side and featuring in league action for the senior squad, he moved to Germany to join Bundesliga outfit TSG Hoffenheim in 2012.As a teenager, Wieser was regular for the Hoffenheim reserve side and made his first team debut when he came off the bench away at Bayern Munich to partner current Royal Danny Williams in the Hoffenheim midfield.From there, he spent year-long loan spells with Austrian side SV Ried and Swiss club FC Aarau, before sealing his move to Thun in 2015.Despite his young age, Wieser already has 33 international caps for Liechtenstein to his name – the first of which came at the age of 17, as he played the entire ninety minutes in a remarkable 1-1 draw away in Iceland.Since then, he has represented his country against some of Europe’s most potent sides – playing against the likes of Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Czech Republic's Thomas Rosicky, Croatia's Luka Modric and Spain's Andres Iniesta.Wieser has also helped his nation to impressive results against – amongst others – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Montenegro. He has one international goal to his name, as last summer he netted in a 1-1 draw against Moldova during their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.Sandro will take squad number 17 and is expected to join in with his first training session alongside his new teammates this afternoon at Hogwood. The move, of course, remains subject to the normal ratification procedures from the relevant football authorities.