Walter Balmer (28 March 1948 – 27 December 2010) was a Swiss international

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 ...

. After his football career he became a high school teacher.

Career

Club

Born in Thun, Balmer and started and played his youth football with the local club

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 ...

. He advanced to their first team, who played in the Nationalliga B, the second tier of Swiss football in 1964 and played with them as a

right winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

between 1964 and 1968. He was the team’s top goal scorer in the 1966–67 season and was joint fifth highest scorer in the league. Balmer was discovered by

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 ...

head coach

Helmut Benthaus Helmut Benthaus (born 5 June 1935) is a German former association football, football player and coach. He spent his best playing days at Westfalia Herne and his best coaching days at FC Basel. Early career Born in Herne, Germany, Herne, Benthau ...

in November 1968 in an FCB cup match against second tier club FC Thun. The then 20-year-old offensive player Balmer was the scorer of the equaliser just before half time and was by far the most noticeable player despite the Bernese Oberlanders' 2-1 defeat. Promptly Benthaus offered him a contract and in the winter break he signed for Basel. After playing in four test games Balmer played his debut with his new team 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 ...

away game in the

Charmilles Stadium Charmilles Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Geneva, Switzerland. It was used mostly for football matches, and was the home venue for Servette FC. The stadium was able to hold 9,250 people and was built in 1930 for the Coupe des Nations 19 ...

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

on 22 February 1969, but Basel were defeated 1–0 by

Servette Servette is a district of the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The district's name comes from the Latin word for forest, ''silva'', and means "little forest". Its name alludes to Servette's rural past, before Geneva grew beyond its walls and incorpora ...

. He played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game in the

Gurzelen Stadion Gurzelen Stadion was a multi-purpose stadium in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. It has mostly been used for football matches and was the home ground of FC Biel-Bienne. The capacity of the stadium was 5,500. Gurzelen Stadion was set to be demolished in ...

one week later on 2 March as Basel played a 1–1 with

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 ...

. He scored his first league goal for his new club on 12 April in the home game in 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 won 2–1 against

. At the end of the 1968–69 league season Basel won the Swiss championship. Balmer played six and a half years for Basel, between 1969 and 1976 in the Nationalliga A and won three further league titles in the seasons 1969-70, 1971-72 and 1972-73. Balmer also won the first edition of the

Swiss League Cup The Swiss League Cup was a football tournament which took place as a summer pre-season tournament in 1972 and 1973, and during the Swiss football season from 1974–75 to 1981–82. The tournament was a knockout competition contested by clubs fro ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

with the team. In the 1975

final against

Winterthur Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...

, Balmer scored the winning goal five minutes before the end of

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

. Balmer played a total of 306 games for Basel scoring a total of 150 goals. 156 of these games were in the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

, 41 in the

and

, 38 in the UEFA competitions (

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

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 ...

Cup of the Alps ''Coppa delle Alpi'' (translated as Cup of the Alps) was an official football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualifi ...

and

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 ...

) and 71 were friendly games. He scored 65 goals in the domestic league, 19 in the domestic cups, 15 in the European games and the other 51 were scored during the test games.

International

Between the years 1969 and 1973 Balmer played 20 games for the Swiss national team in which he scored two goals. In 1971, he scored during the 4–0 win against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and in 1972 during the 1–1 draw with

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Private life

Collateral to his semi-professional football career with FCB, Balmer completed his studies at the University of Basel. The successful completion of his studium was the reason why Balmer ended his career as a top footballer when he was not even 27 years old. He received an offer from the Interlaken high school, which he understandably did not want to refuse, especially since in that era the secure position of a high school teacher was a more stable economic basis than the life of as a semi-professional football in a Swiss NLA club. Balmer taught mathematics and sports as a respected teacher at Interlaken High School until his sudden and much too early death. He had also worked as a sport journalist. He died of heart failure while cross-country skiing on 27 December 2010.

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 ...

champion: 1968–69, 1969-70, 1971-72, 1972-73 *

winner: 1972-75 *

winner:

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

winner: 1969, 1970

References

Sources

*
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balmer, Walter 1948 births 2010 deaths FC Thun players FC Basel players Swiss men's footballers Switzerland men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Footballers from Thun Sportspeople from Interlaken 20th-century Swiss sportsmen