August "Gusti" Ibach (1918 – 26 October 1988) was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

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 le ...

who played for

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

. He played mainly as

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, but also as defender and sometimes as

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. Ibach played youth football by

. He joined their first team at the beginning of their 1935–36 season. But he did not play his domestic league debut until the end of that season. This was in the home game at the Landhof on 10 May 1936 as Basel played a 1–1 draw with Young Boys. He scored his first goal for his club in the very next game a week later. It was the very last game of the season, on 17 May, an away game against Servette. It was the first goal of the game which ended in a 2–2 draw. Ibach played six seasons for Basel. In the season 1938/39 Ibach and his team suffered relegation to the 1 Liga. Although Basel were 1 Liga champions the following season, there was no relegation and no promotion due to the second World War. Again in the 1940/41 season Basel won their 1 Liga group, but in the promotion play-offs Basel were defeated by

Cantonal Neuchatel The 26 cantons of Switzerland (german: Kanton; french: canton ; it, cantone; Sursilvan and Surmiran: ; Vallader and Puter: ; Sutsilvan: ; Rumantsch Grischun: ) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Con ...

and drew the game with

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

. Their two play-off opponents were thus promoted and Basel remained for another season in the 1 Liga. Ibach left Basel at the end of this season. Between the years 1935 and 1941 Ibach played a total of 121 games for Basel scoring a total of 81 goals. 79 of these games were in the Nationalliga, eight 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 L ...

and 34 were friendly games. He scored 47 goals in the domestic league, five in the cup and the other 29 were scored during the test games. Noticeable for a midfield player was Ibach's goal scoring capability. He was the team's top league goal scorer in the 1939–40 season, with 19 goals in just 14 games. During his time with Basel, Ibach scored a hat-trick on five occasions, two were during friendly encounters, but he also achieved three hat-tricks in the Nationalliga. Two of which in the afore mentioned season. The first was on 17 December 1939 away against

Concordia Basel FC Concordia Basel is a Swiss association football, football club based in Basel. The club was founded in 1907. They play in the 2nd regional league which is the fifth level, and their home stadium was Rankhof Stadium until the 2008-09 season. F ...

. The second was on 21 July 1940 against

Bellinzona Bellinzona ( , , Ticinese ; french: Bellinzone ; german: Bellenz ; rm, Blizuna )is a municipality, a historic Swiss town, and the capital of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The town is famous for its three castles (Castelgrande, Montebell ...

. In the next season, in home match on 27 April 1941 Ibach scored four goals against US Bienne-Boujean as Basel won 9–1. Ibach moved on to play for

Biel-Bienne , french: Biennois(e) , neighboring_municipalities= Brügg, Ipsach, Leubringen/Magglingen (''Evilard/Macolin''), Nidau, Orpund, Orvin, Pieterlen, Port, Safnern, Tüscherz-Alfermée, Vauffelin , twintowns = Iserlohn (Germany) B ...

in the summer of 1941. He stayed with them for 11 years. Ibach was called up for the Swiss national team for the first time in 1946. He played three games with their reserve squad and one match for his country's A team. This was on 21 April 1948 as Swiss lost a friendly match 4–7 in

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against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

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:Ibach, August FC Basel players Swiss men's footballers Men's association football midfielders 1918 births 1988 deaths