Hans Küng (born 24 April 1949) is 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 ...

retired

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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

in the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

Club career

Born in Weinfelden Küng played his youth football with the local club in

Amriswil , neighboring_municipalities= Egnach, Erlen, Hefenhofen, Muolen (SG), Salmsach, Sommeri, Zihlschlacht-Sitterdorf , twintowns = Amriswil ( Low Alemannic: ''Amerschwiil'') is a town and a municipality in Arbon District in the canton of Thurga ...

. Küng came to FC Winterthur from the first division club FC Amriswil in 1968, after the Winterthur team manager noticed him in a cup game against them in November 1968. In Winterthur he was first signed as the third goalie, but during his first two seasons with the club he did not once play for their first team. This changed in the autumn of 1970 when coach Willy Sommer gave him preference over regular goalkeeper Werner Frei. During the so-called "''glorious years of FC Winterthur''" between 1970 and 1975 he was the team's first goalkeeper. With Küng as first goalie Winterthur reached 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 ...

final twice and 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 ...

final once. In the League Cup final 1972 they were defeated 1–4 by

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 ...

and a year later 1973 4–5 in a penalty shoot-out by Grasshopper Club. In the Swiss Cup final on 31 March 1975 they were also defeated by Basel 2–1. In the off-season 1975 Küng moved on to play for

Neuchâtel Xamax , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France ...

. Then in the summer of 1977 he moved on to play 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 ...

. With Basel he became Swiss champion in 1980. Küng joined Basel's first team for their 1977–78 season under manager Helmut Benthaus. After playing in three test games, one League Cup match and two games in the Cup of the Alps, Küng played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game on 24 September 1977 as Basel were defeated 0–2 by Servette. In their 1979–80 season Basel won the Swiss Championship. Between the years 1977 and 1983 Küng played a total of 252 games for Basel. 154 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 32 in the

and

, 16 were in the European competitions (

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

and Cup of the Alps) and 50 were friendly games.

International career

In 1974 he played in goal for the Swiss national team for the first time under head coach

René Hüssy René Hüssy (born 29 August 1928 in Zürich, died 11 March 2007) was a Swiss football player and manager who played for Grasshopper Club Zürich and FC Lausanne-Sport and managed the Switzerland national football team. Playing career Hüssy ...

. His debut was on 12 April 1974 as Switzerland were defeated 0–1 by

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 ...

. He played five times for his country.

Honurs

;Winterthur: *

runner-up:

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, me ...

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

runner-up: 1974–75 ;Basel: * Swiss championship: 1979–80

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:Küng, Hans Living people 1949 births Swiss men's footballers Switzerland men's international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers FC Winterthur players Neuchâtel Xamax FCS players FC Basel players Swiss Super League players People from Weinfelden Sportspeople from Thurgau