Iván Knez (; born 21 July 1974) is a former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a defender during the 1990s and 2000s.

Football career

Although he was born in Argentina, Knez was raised in Switzerland and started playing football in the youth movement of the local club SC Emmen. He began his professional career with

FC Lucerne Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (). It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league system, and has wo ...

in 1994. After five years at the club, he moved to

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

in 1999. Knez joined Basel's first team for their 1999–2000 season under new head coach

Christian Gross Christian Jürgen Gross (born 14 August 1954) is a Swiss football manager and former player. He played as a sweeper and central midfielder. Gross was manager of Basel from 1999 to 2009, winning four Swiss Super Leagues and four Swiss Cups. As ...

. After playing one test match, his debut for his new club was in the home game in the

Stadion Schützenmatte Stadion Schützenmatte is a sports stadium with track and field facilities in the Bachletten quartier in Basel, Switzerland. It is the home ground of BSC Old Boys Basel and, together, the Association football pitch, pitch and tennis courts make u ...

on 26 June 1999 as Basel beat Korotan 6–0 in return leg of the first round of the 1999 UI Cup and advanced to the next round. After playing in another UIC and another test game Knez played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game in the

Cornaredo Cornaredo ( Milanese: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Milan in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northwest of Milan. Cornaredo borders the following municipalities: Rho Rho (; uppercase Ρ, lowercase ρ or ...

on 7 July 1999 as Basel played a 1–1 draw against

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

. He scored his first goal for the club on 24 August in the away game in the stadion

Espenmoos Espenmoos Stadium, is a football stadium in St. Gallen, Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, German ...

as Basel played a 1–1 draw against St. Gallen. Knez played as

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

together with Oliver Kreuzer. FC Basel reached the final of the

2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup finals were won by Aston Villa, Paris Saint-Germain and Troyes. All three teams advanced to the UEFA Cup. First round First leg ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ...

, but they lost to

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

. Knez helped the club win the Double during the 2001/02 season. Between the years 1999 and 2002 Knez played a total of 122 games for Basel scoring just the afore mentioned goal. 68 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 5 in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

, 5 in the

UEFA cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, 7 in the UI Cup and 37 were friendly games. In August 2002, he signed for

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

club

SK Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English language, English, is an Football in Austria, Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian cham ...

, but returned to the Swiss Nationalliga a year later with

BSC Young Boys Berner Sport Club Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation, ) is a Swiss professional sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 17 Swiss league championships and eight Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss footbal ...

. He then headed off to Germany's second division with

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. T ...

, and he retired in the summer of 2007.

Honours

;Lucerne *

Runner-Up: 1997 ;Basel *

Swiss League The Swiss League, also known as the Sky Swiss League for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the main professional ice hockey league in Switzerland, behind the National League (ice hockey), National League. The winners of the league each ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

: 2002 ;Augsburg *

Schwaben Cup The Schwaben Cup (German: ''Schwäbischer Pokal'') was a domestic cup competition in the Bavarian ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Swabia (German: ''Schwaben''), played from 1947 to 2009. Overview The competition was first played in 1947, before the rei ...

: 2005

References

Sources

* Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2017/2018. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. * Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage

External links

* 1974 births Swiss men's footballers Argentine men's footballers Living people FC Luzern players FC Basel players SK Rapid Wien players BSC Young Boys players FC Augsburg players Swiss Super League players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Swiss people of Argentine descent Sportspeople of Argentine descent Men's association football central defenders Footballers from Buenos Aires {{Switzerland-footy-defender-stub