Mario Eggimann (born 24 January 1981) is a Swiss 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 ...

who played as a defender. He also earned caps for the Swiss national team.

Club career

Born in

Brugg , neighboring_municipalities = Gebenstorf, Habsburg, Hausen, Holderbank, Lupfig, Riniken, Rüfenach, Schinznach, Untersiggenthal, Villigen, Villnachern, Veltheim, Windisch , twintowns = Rottweil (Germany) , website ...

, Switzerland, Eggimann began his career with local side FC Küttigen before moving to bigger local rivals

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss football club based in Aarau. They play in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was formed on 26 May 1902 by workers from a local br ...

where he began his professional career making his professional debut in 1998. He played at Stadion Brugglifeld for

until 2002 when he headed to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

to play in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

for

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the DF ...

. In the 2006–07 season Eggimann was made captain as

were champions of the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

. In March 2008, Eggimann exercised a clause in his contract by moving to Hannover 96 for €1.4 million. He signed a contract until June 2013. After the end of the 2014–15 season, Eggimann did not receive an extension of his expiring contract with

Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as 1. FC Union Berlin () or Union Berlin, is a professional German football club in Köpenick, Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweid ...

, having only earned 17 caps caused by multiple injuries since his arrival in 2013. In October 2015, Eggimann announced his retirement from professional football.

International career

Eggimann was captain of the Swiss U21 national team. On 7 September 2007, he played first for the

Swiss national football team The Switzerland national football team (german: Schweizer Fussballnationalmannschaft, it, Nazionale di calcio della Svizzera, french: Équipe nationale suisse de football, rm, Squadra naziunala da ballape da la Svizra) represents Switzerland ...

coming on as a

half-time In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...

substitute for

Johan Djourou Danon Issouf Johannes Djourou Gbadjere (; born 18 January 1987), known as Johan Djourou, is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a centre back. According to his profile on the website of his former club Arsenal, Djourou possesses ...

in a 2–1 victory against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. The match was part of a tournament in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, comprising Japan and

as well as

and Switzerland. Eggimann was selected by then-coach

Köbi Kuhn Jakob "Köbi" Kuhn (12 October 1943 – 26 November 2019) was a Swiss football player and manager. During his playing career he played primarily for FC Zürich and won 63 caps for Switzerland, one of which was at the 1966 FIFA World Cup in Engl ...

prior to

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of Europea ...

but did not make the final squad. He has been selected by

Ottmar Hitzfeld Ottmar Hitzfeld (; born 12 January 1949) is a German former professional football player ( striker) and manager. He accumulated a total of 18 major titles, mostly in his tenures with Grasshopper Club Zürich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. ...

for the

2010 World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

Personal life

On 20 February 2008, Eggimann became a father for the first time to a baby girl.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eggimann, Mario 1981 births Living people People from Brugg Association football defenders Swiss men's footballers FC Aarau players Hannover 96 players Karlsruher SC players 1. FC Union Berlin players Hannover 96 II players Swiss Super League players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Switzerland international footballers Switzerland under-21 international footballers Swiss expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany 2010 FIFA World Cup players Swiss-German people Sportspeople from Aargau