Alpine Rams wide receiver Kevin Kaya: “Nobody’s gonna respect us. We have to earn it”
Kevin Kaya has won a Grey Cup in Canada, played college football in North America, and spent two seasons with the Frankfurt Galaxy. Now the wide receiver is taking on a new challenge with the Alpine Rams in their first ever season of professional football. He has earned everything he has through competition and hard work. In Switzerland, he is ready to do it all over again.
Coach Fitz and the right vision
Kaya did not need a long time to make up his mind about the Alpine Rams. The call from head coach Fitzgerald was enough. What came across in that conversation was not just a job offer but a vision, a clear sense of what the franchise was trying to build and why Kaya was part of that picture. For a player who has spent his career chasing exactly that kind of environment, the answer was straightforward.
“When Coach Fitz called, he explained his vision and what he’s trying to create with us. I felt like it’s going to be the right place for me. I’m a competitor, so a challenge like that is a good opportunity to surpass myself,” he said.
That word, competitor, comes up often when Kaya talks about himself. It is not a label he attaches lightly. It is the thread that runs through everything he has done in football, from his college years to Canada to Frankfurt to now.
What Canada and the Grey Cup taught him
Of all the chapters in Kaya’s career, his time in Canadian football left the deepest mark. He won the Grey Cup, one of the most storied trophies in North American football, and the experience reshaped how he understands what it takes to win at the highest level. The lessons were not tactical. They were about culture.
“Compete, compete and compete. One of the words I heard the most during my career in Canada. You definitely have to embrace competition all the time. Everybody wants to be on the field, everybody wants to be the guy, especially in great football teams,” Kaya explained.
One detail from that Grey Cup season has stayed with him. The head coach required every player to know the name, number and hometown of every one of their teammates. It was checked in meetings. It sounds simple. The effect it had was not.
“Individuals became unity,” he said.
The coach who shaped him as a person
When Kaya looks back at the coaches who shaped him, one name stands out above the rest. Not because of the scheme he ran or the plays he drew up, but because of how he treated a young player who was far from home and trying to find his footing.
“Coach Marco Ladeluca was the offensive coordinator during my first years at college. I have a lot of respect for him because of the way he took care of me. I was a young man far from home without his family, trying to live the dream. The emotional side has its importance too. When you trust your coach, everything is easier,” Kaya said.
That trust became the foundation for everything that followed. Kaya put in the work during the offseason, took every rep seriously, and proved over time that he could handle more responsibility. The relationship with Ladeluca taught him that football is not just physical. It is built on people who believe in each other.
Dangerous in the air and never takes a rep off
Ask Kaya what kind of player he is and he does not overthink the answer. Route running and winning the ball in the air are where he does his damage. But what he emphasises just as much is the consistency behind it. Every snap, every rep, the same standard.
“Thank God I’m a really good route runner and dangerous when the ball is in the air. I don’t take reps off. I always give everything on the field and that’s the reason why I have a spectacular style,” he said.
Nobody’s going to hand them anything
The Alpine Rams are entering uncharted territory. Switzerland has never produced a successful team in a top European football competition, and Kaya knows exactly what that means for how the rest of the league will approach them. He is not bothered by it. If anything, it sharpens his focus.
“Unfortunately, Swiss teams have never been successful in European leagues, so the goal is to win game after game and become a top team. Nobody’s gonna respect us. We have to earn it,” he said.
That mentality, forged in Canada, tested in Germany, and now brought to the Alpine Rams, is exactly what a new franchise needs in its locker room. Kevin Kaya has been in winning environments before. He knows what they look like, and he knows what it takes to build one from scratch. The AFLE season starts 23 May 2026. Switzerland is watching.
