Rudolf "Ruedi" Zahner (born 7 February 1957) is 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 ...

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 ...

and coach, who played as a defender during the 1970s, 1980's. Zahner began playing professionally in 1976 with his local club,

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss professional football club based in Aarau. Founded in 1902, the club competes in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from the Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was form ...

. In 1982, he made the step up to

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a professional football club based in Zurich, Switzerland. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League thirteen times and the Swiss Cup ten times. ...

but failed to cut it and left for FC Zug, who played one tier lower, after just one season. He returned to FC Aarau in 1984 and played there for another three years. In the season 1984–85 Aarau won 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 ...

, beating Xamax 1–0 in the final. Zahner then moved on to play one season for

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 ...

. He joined Basel's first team in their 1987–88 season under head-coach

Urs Siegenthaler Urs Siegenthaler (born 23 November 1947) is a former Swiss footballer, turned manager. Since 13 May 2005 he was a Chiefscout and Analyser for the Germany national team, until 11 November 2021. Playing career Born in Basel, Siegenthaler started ...

. After playing in five test games, Zahnder played his domestic league debut for his new club in the away against his former club on 8 August 1987 as Basel were defeated 0–2 by Aarau. He scored his first goal for the club on 19 September in the home game at the

St. Jakob Stadium The St. Jakob Stadium was a football (soccer), football stadium in Basel, Switzerland and the former home of Swiss club FC Basel. It was built in view of the 1954 FIFA World Cup, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted several import ...

as Basel played a 3–3 draw with

Luzern Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

. Zahner retired from his active playing career at the end of the 1987–88 season. During his time with the club he played a total of 33 games for Basel scoring a total of two goals. 19 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, one in the

and 13 were friendly games. He scored one goal in the domestic league, the other was scored during the test games. After his retirement, he coached the Swiss under–17s team between the years 1991 and 1999. During the 1992–93 season he was also assistant coach to Rolf Fringer as

won the Swiss championship. In the season 2006–07, he was in the club's board of directors and appointed as assistant manager. He became manager ad-interim in 2007, but stayed in this position for only a short period. Zahnder studied sports psychology and made a name for himself as an expert in personality and team development.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zahner, Ruedi 1957 births Living people Swiss men's footballers Swiss football managers FC Aarau players FC Zürich players FC Basel players FC Aarau managers Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Aarau 20th-century Swiss sportsmen