Urs Suter (born 4 March 1959) 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 ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Football career

Suter started his football with the youth teams of the local football club FC Langnau am Albis before moving on to

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zurich (GCZ), commonly referred to as Grasshopper Club or simply just GC, is a professional sports club, multisports club based in Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland. They are nicknamed the ''Grasshoppers'' or sometimes just ''Hopper ...

. He played in their youth team and later in their reserve side. During the 1980–81 and 1981–82 seasons he played for

FC Blue Stars Zürich Football Club Blue Stars Zürich are a football team from Zürich, Switzerland. They are members of the Fussballverband Region Zürich, an under-section of the Swiss Football Association. The club have two men's teams and twelve youth teams. The ...

in the Swiss 1. Liga. Urs Suter signed his first professional contract with promoted

FC Wettingen FC Wettingen was a Swiss football club from Wettingen, Switzerland. It was founded in 1931, but due to financial problems they went bankrupt in 1993. In the same year it was refounded as ''FC Wettingen 93''. In the 2012/13 season, the name was ch ...

in 1981. During his first season he was the reserve goalkeeper and did not come to any playing time, but the team won promotion. In the 1982–83 season Suter became first keeper and played 29 games. Suter joined

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 their 1983–84 season under head-coach Ernst-August Künnecke. After playing in seven test games Suter played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game on 10 August 1983 as Basel were defeated 2–4 by

Bellinzona Bellinzona ( , ; ; is a municipality, a List of towns in Switzerland, historic Swiss town, and the capital of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The town is famous for its Three Castles of Bellinzona, three castles (Castelgrande, Montebello, Sa ...

. With Basel he won the

Uhrencup The Uhrencup is a association football, club football tournament, held annually in Grenchen and Biel/Bienne, Biel in Switzerland. The Uhrencup is seen as a testament to the major influence that is exercised by the local watchmaking industry on the ...

in 1983 and 1986. Suter played in Basel for five seasons, until the team was relegated after a very disappointing 1987–88 season. His team mates included defenders

Massimo Ceccaroni Massimo Ceccaroni (born 15 August 1968) is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a defender or midfielder. He played for FC Basel for very nearly his entire career. He was later trainer at amateur club BSC Old Boys and then trai ...

and Peter Bernauer and Swiss national team players such as

Adrian Knup Adrian Knup (born 2 July 1968) is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a striker in the 1980s and 1990s. He was capped 49 times and scored 26 goals for the Switzerland national team between 1989 and 1996, including three games ...

Dominique Herr Dominique Herr (born 25 October 1965) is a Swiss former football defensive midfielder who played throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Club career Herr started his youth football at local club FC Basel. He advanced to their first team for their 1985 ...

and

Peter Nadig Peter Nadig (born 20 February 1965) is a former Swiss footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s as midfielder or as striker. Career Nadig played his youth football with local team Basel. He advanced to their first team for their 1983–84 ...

. Despite this personally strongly occupied team Basel were relegated to the Nationalliga B after the

1987–88 Nationalliga A Statistics of the Swiss National League in the 1987–88 football season, both Nationalliga A and Nationalliga B. Overview There had been modifications to the Swiss Football Association (ASF/SFV) in advance of this season and the format of th ...

season. During this time Suter played a total of 219 games for Basel. 138 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 14 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 ...

and 67 were friendly games. At that point he transferred 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. ...

and played there for four years. During the season 1989–90 Suter won promotion with Zürich to the Nationalliga A. In the 1992–93 season, Suter again played for FC Wettingen, but at the end of the season the club was dissolved due to financial reasons. So Suter moved, as semi-professional, to

FC Tuggen FC Tuggen is a Switzerland, Swiss football club from the town of Tuggen in Canton Schwyz, the Linguistic geography of Switzerland, German-speaking region of Switzerland. The club was founded in 1966 and currently plays in 1. Liga Classic, the fou ...

in the 1. Liga. The team won the Group championship and were promoted to the Challenge League (then named Nationalliga B). However, a year later the team was placed last in the division and were relegated. Again a year later they were 1. Liga Group winners, but failed in the play-off promotion game with 0:2 against

FC Thun Fussballclub Thun 1898 is a Swiss association football, football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club plays in the Swiss Super League from 2025–26, the top tier of the Swiss football league system, following promotion from the ...

. Suter played in Tuggen five years and retired in 1998, concluding his football career with FC Wollishofen in the lower divisions.

Honours

Basel * Uhrencup Winner: 1983, 1986 Zürich *

Promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

to Nationalliga A: 1989–90 Tuggen * Group Champions Swiss 1. Liga and Promotion to Nationalliga B: 1993–94 * Group Champions 1. Liga: 1995–96

Personal Information

Urs Suter is married to Jacqueline. They have two daughters Kerstin und Senja. Today Suter lives in Zürich and works as a sales representative for an electric lighting company.

References

Sources

* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Suter, Urs 1959 births Living people Footballers from Zurich Swiss men's footballers FC Wettingen players FC Basel players FC Zürich players Men's association football goalkeepers 20th-century Swiss sportsmen