Bruno Gatti (28 August 1941 – 7 March 2012) was a Swiss

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 in the 1960s for

Black Stars Basel FC Black Stars Basel is a Association football, football club from Basel, Switzerland. Since the season 2012/2013 they play in Group 2 of the 1. Liga Classic, the fourth tier of Swiss football.. They were promoted to the third tier in 2019. C ...

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 ...

and then

FC Biel-Bienne Fussballclub Biel-Bienne is a Swiss association football club based in Biel/Bienne. The currently play in the 2. Liga Interregional. Honours Swiss championship *Champions: 1946–47 *Runners-up: 1947–48, 1959–60 Swiss Cup *Runners ...

. He played 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 ...

Football career

In December 1962 Gatti transferred from the Black Stars Basel to FC Basel. Gatti wrote himself a special

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 ...

story in this 1962/63 season. Before the winter break, he played with the Black Stars in the Cup against FC Basel and his club was knocked out of the competition. Then gatti switched to FCB - and eventually became Cup winner with his new club. He played his debut for his new team on 30 December 1962 in the Cup as Basel won against SC Burgdorf 7–1. His first goal for the club was scored in the same match. 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 se ...

hosted the Cup Final and Basel played against favorites Grasshopper Club. 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 a ...

and the second from Otto Ludwig gave Basel a 2–0 victory and their third Cup win in their history. Gatti played the full 90 minutes. He played his Nationalliga A debut on 17 February 1963 in the away game against

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

that Basel won 3–0. He scored his first goal for his new club on 28 April 1963 against team Young Fellows as Basel won 4–2. A well-documented curiosity was the fact that during the winter break of their 1963–64 season the team travelled on a world tour. This saw them visit

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the Briti ...

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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

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 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

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 Frenc ...

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 Guatema ...

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 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. First team manager

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 goals ...

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. He w ...

filmed the events with his super-8 camara. 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 qua ...

, an eye injury for

Walter Baumann Walter Baumann (born 21 July 1942) is a Swiss former footballer who played in the 1960s. He played mainly as a forward, but also as a defender. Football career Baumann joined Basel's first team during their 1962–63 season under trainer Jiř ...

and a knee injury for

soon reduced the number of players to just 13. Gatti was a member of this tour. He played in nine of these games and scored one goal. Between the years 1962 and 1964 Gatti played a total of 61 games for Basel scoring a total of 12 goals. 32 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, six in the

, three 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 majorit ...

and 20 were friendly games. He scored five goals in the domestic league, one un the domestic Cup and the other six were scored during the test games. After the 1963/64 season Gatti transferred to

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 ...

and here he ended his active football career. Grave of Bruno Gatti-Jakopp

Gatti was buried on the Friedhof am Hörnli near Basel.

Honours

;Basel *

winner: 1962–63

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:Gatti, Bruno FC Black Stars Basel players SC Young Fellows Juventus players FC Basel players FC Biel-Bienne players Swiss men's footballers Men's association football forwards 1941 births 2011 deaths