Kurt Thalmann (3 November 1931 – 9 January 2018) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

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 ...

. He played in the 1950s and early 1960s as

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forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Football career

Club football

Thalmann played his youth football by local club Concordia Basel and advanced to the first team in the 1950–51 season in the second tier of Swiss football. During this season Thalmann played 24 of the 26 league matches, scoring five goals, but he could not save the team from suffering relegation at the end of it. During the summer of 1951 Thalmann 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 Switzerland's top tier, under team manager Ernst Hufschmid for their 1950–51 season. Here Thalmann played as semi-profession footballer. After playing in six test matches Thalmann played his domestic league debut for his new club in the home game at the

Landhof The Landhof was a sports stadium in the district Basel-Wettstein in Kleinbasel, Basel. It was the former and first home stadium of FC Basel. It is mentioned for the first time in a chronicle in the second half of the 18th century as a ''nice s ...

on 26 August 1950. He also scored his first league goal for the team as Basel won 6–1 against

Young Fellows Zürich Sportclub Young Fellows Juventus is a professional Swiss football club based in Zürich. It was founded in 1992 following a merger between Young Fellows Zürich (established in 1903) and Società Calcistica Italiana Juventus Zurigo (1922). The ...

. Thalmann spent the four years playing for Basel. He played a total of 149 games for Basel scoring a total of 34 goals. 95 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 12 in the

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and 42 were friendly games. He scored 17 goals in the domestic league, five in the cup and the other 12 were scored during the test games. His biggest success was the championship title in Basel's 1952–53 season under

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

René Bader René Bader (7 August 1922 – 1995) was a Swiss football player and coach. Career A forward, Bader played for FC Basel between 1946 and 1953. In 1947 Basel won the Swiss Cup as they beat Lausanne-Sport 3–0 in the final at the Stadion Neu ...

. He was one of the youngest players in the team at that time and was known for his dribbling and his assists for the team's top scorer Josef "Seppi" Hügi to score his goals. In the summer of 1955 Thalmann transferred to

Cantonal Neuchâtel The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the . Two important periods in the development of ...

, who played in the second tier at that time, for two seasons. He then spent another season playing for

Biel-Bienne Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...

, before moving on to play another six seasons in the second and third tier of Swiss football for

Solothurn Solothurn ( ; ; ; ; ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissenstein Jura mountains. The town is ...

. In the season 1962–63 Thalmann and the team achieved promotion from the 1st League to the Nationalliga B. At the end of the following season Thalmann ended his active playing football career.

National team

Thalmann never made it to an appearance in the Switzerland national team, however, he did play five games for the reserve team.

Private life

Thalmann married Suzanne and they had four children. He left Basel, when FC Basel team management would not help him find additional employment. He moved to

Neuchâtel Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital (political), capital of the cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel ...

when management of the

were able to employ him at the local gas works. Later the family returned to Basel as Walter Fust offered Thalmann work in his electrical shop. Fust would fire him, whereupon Thalmann was employed as a receptionist for the bank

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until his retirement. His children would announce that after a pleasant football orientated life, Thalmann died at his home in Basel on 9 January 2018.

Honours

;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 ...

champions: 1952–53 ;Solothurn * Promotion 1st League Nationalliga B: 1962–63

Notes

References

Sources

* Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2017/2018. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. *
1952–53 at RSSSF