Walter Baumann (born 21 July 1942) 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 in the 1960s. He played mainly as a

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) ** Sm ...

, but also as a defender.

Football career

Baumann joined Basel's first team during their 1962–63 season under trainer

Jiří Sobotka Jiří Sobotka (also known as Georges Sobotka; 6 June 1911 – 20 May 1994) was a Czech football player and manager. He played internationally for Czechoslovakia. Career Sobotka played for Czechoslovakia national football team (23 caps, 8 goa ...

. On 15 April 1963 the

Wankdorf Stadium The Wankdorf Stadium (german: Wankdorfstadion, ) was a football stadium in the Wankdorf quarter of Bern, Switzerland, and the former home of Swiss club BSC Young Boys. It was built in 1925, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted s ...

hosted the Cup Final and Basel played against favorites

Grasshopper Club Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

. Two goals after half time, one by

Heinz Blumer Heinz Blumer (* 7 January 1942) is a retired Swiss footballer who played in the 1960s and 70s. He played mainly in the position as defender, but also as midfielder. Football career Basel Blumer played in the youth teams of FC Basel and ...

and the second from

Otto Ludwig Otto Ludwig may refer to: *Otto Ludwig (writer) (1813–1865), German novelist and dramatist *Otto Ludwig (film editor) (1903–1983), German film editor active in British inter-war films *Otto Ludwig (footballer) Otto Ludwig (29 November 193417 ...

gave Basel a 2–0 victory and their third Cup win in the club's history. Baumann was not in the team that played, but in the squad. After playing in the

Cup of the Alps Coppa delle Alpi (translated as ''Cup of the Alps'') was a friendly football tournament, first organized by the Italian national league as it started in 1960 and then they were aided by the Swiss League from 1962, for the reason that the majori ...

matches and five test games he played in the

1963–64 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1963–64 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup club football tournament was won by Sporting CP in a replayed final victory against MTK Budapest. First round Bye: Tottenham Hotspur , Motor Zwickau , Linfield F.C. 1 Ol ...

match against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

on 17 September 1963. He made his domestic league debut for the club on 22 September as Basel beat Lausanne-Sport 3–2. He scored his first goal for his club on 27 October 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 su ...

as Basel won 2–1 against Grasshopper Club. During the winter break of their 1963–64 season the team travelled on a world tour. This saw them visit British Hong Kong,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, Australia,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

French Polynesia )Territorial motto: ( en, "Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze") , anthem = , song_type = Regional anthem , song = "Ia Ora 'O Tahiti Nui" , image_map = French Polynesia on the globe (French Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of French ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. First-team manager

together with 16 players and 15 members of staff, supporters and journalists participated in this world tour from 10 January to 10 February 1964. Team captain

Bruno Michaud Bruno Michaud (14 October 1935 — 1 November 1997) was a Swiss footballer and manager who played as a defender mainly for FC Basel and the Swiss national football team. Club career Michaud started his football in the youth teams of Basel. H ...

filmed the events with his super-8 camera. The voyage around the world included 19 flights and numerous bus and train journeys. Club chairman, Lucien Schmidlin, led the group, but as they arrived in the hotel in Bangkok, he realised that 250,000 Swiss Francs were missing. The suitcase that he had filled with the various currencies was not with them. He had left it at home, but fortunately Swiss Air were able to deliver this to him within just a few days. During the tour a total of ten friendly/test games were played, these are listed in their 1963–64 season. Five wins, three draws, two defeats, but also three major injuries resulted from these test matches. A broken leg for

Peter Füri Peter Füri (9 October 1937 – 11 May 2015) was a Swiss football player and manager, who played during the 1950s and 1960s. He died on 11 May 2015 at his home in Muttenz due to heart failure. Füri was born and brought up in Kleinbasel a quar ...

, a knee injury for

and an eye injury for Baumann himself, soon reduced the number of players to 13. Despite his injury he played in five games. In three-and-a-half seasons between 1962 and 1966 Baumann played 65 games for Basel and scoring six goals; 28 games were in the Nationalliga A, 7 in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference ...

, 7 in European competitions (

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised ...

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is often considered the predecessor to the UEFA Cup (n ...

) and 23 were friendly games. He scored two goals in the domestic league, one in the Swiss Cup and the other three during the test games. Following his time with Basel, Baumann moved on to

La Chaux-de-Fonds La Chaux-de-Fonds () is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura mountains at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometers south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg, it is the fourth largest city loc ...

and later to FC Moutier.

References

Sources

* Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2017/2018. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. * Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baumann, Walter FC Basel players FC La Chaux-de-Fonds players Swiss men's footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football forwards 1942 births Living people