Ernst Kaltenbach (born 7 February 1889 – 10 October 1965) 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 as a

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 ...

Club career

Kaltenbach started his playing career with

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

in 1909 and played for the first team until 1927. During this time the FCB played in the Swiss Serie A. Kaltenbach played a total of 275 games for Basel, of which 147 games were in the national championship, five in the Anglo-Cup and 123 in friendly/test games. He scored 20 goals in the domestic league, three in the Anglo-Cup and 26 in the friendly games. In the 1912–13 season Basel won the Anglo-Cup. Kaltenbach was part of the team that won the final on 29 June 1913 in the Hardau Stadium, Zürich against FC Weissenbühl Bern 5–0. On 24 April 1921, Kaltenbach played in a comparison match between a Berlin city selection and FC Basel, in front of 35,000 spectators, he was honoured as best Basel players. Basel achieved a 3–3 draw, despite having previously travelled over 19 hours by train. In the domestic championship FC Basel had almost suffered relegation from Serie-A during that same season.

International career

Kaltenbach was one of the pioneers of Swiss football and from 1911 to 1922 obtained a total of 13 caps for the Switzerland national team. In his first international match, on 30 October 1911 in Budapest, the Swiss suffered a 9–0 defeat 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 ...

(their highest defeat to date). His last international match, eleven years later, was also a comparison with the Hungarians in Budapest, this time the game resulted in an honorable 1–1 draw. In Zurich, on 27 June 1920 in the 4–1 victory over

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Kaltenbach was the Swiss captain. That game was the first appearance of a German selection after the First World War.

Personal life

Dr. Phil Ernst Basler Kaltenbach was a middle school teacher. He shaped the early history of FC Basel not only as player. In 1916, he was one of the initiators and founders of the FC Basel youth section. From 29 October 1924 he was the editor of the "Swiss football and athletics newspaper", and later wrote for the German magazine "Kicker" about Swiss football and wrote for the sports newspaper "Tip".

Honours

FC Basel * Anglo Cup ''(Predecessor competition of the Swiss Cup)'': 1912/13

Sources and references

* Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2014/2015. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaltenbach, Ernst 1953 deaths 1889 births Swiss men's footballers Footballers from Basel Men's association football midfielders Switzerland men's international footballers FC Basel players