After travelling to Africa to face Kenyan side Kariobangi Sharks in their first pre-season friendly, Everton now tackle FC Sion at the Stade St Marc by their Alpine training base close to both Mont Blanc and Lake Geneva.
Like Everton, Sion, whose regular ground Stade Tourbillon is less than 30 miles away, finished eighth in their domestic top flight last season – although there are only 10 clubs in the Swiss Super League so they only just avoided relegation.
They now have a new coach in the shape of former Liverpool defender Stephane Henchoz.
The 44-year-old made 205 appearances for the Reds between 1999-2004 but never scored.
His first involvement in a Liverpool matchday squad in the Premier League was for the Merseyside Derby against Everton on September 27, 1999 but as an unused substitute he did not get on the pitch for the Blues' last victory at Anfield to date courtesy of Kevin Campbell's fourth-minute goal.
The Sion squad contains several intriguing characters.
Arguably best well-known to Evertonians will be Cameroon midfielder Alex Song.
The 31-year-old has extensive Premier League experience with Arsenal and West Ham United either side of a spell at Catalan giants Barcelona.
Alongside him in the engine room is captain Pajtim Kasami, 27, a Swiss international with spells in England at Fulham (2011-14) and Nottingham Forest (2016-17).
Brazilian defender Raphael, 28, also started off his senior career on these shores.
A youth team player at Brighton & Hove Albion, he moved to nearby non-league outfit Whitehawk before working his way up to the top.
Primarily a centre-back, Raphael made 131 appearances for Swindon Town between 2013-17 before going on to play top flight football in both Portugal (Boavista, 2017/18) and now Switzerland with Sion.
There are four other Brazilians in the squad include attacking midfielder Adryan, 24, who played 13 games on loan for Leeds United in 2014/15 and winger Baltazar, 19, who prefers to go by his childhood nickname of Batata, which means potato.
Additional players of note include utility man Ermir Lenjani, 29, who has been capped 26 times by Albania and can operate in both defence and midfield plus 6ft 6in Latvian target man Robert Uldrikis, 21.
