Joseph Küttel (27 December 1952 – 25 February 1997) was a Swiss professional

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 1970s and 1980s as a

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. Küttel played his youth football for local club

FC Emmenbrücke FC Emmenbrücke are a Swiss football team with its home in the city of Emmen, currently playing in the Swiss 1. Liga (football), the fourth highest tier in the Swiss football pyramid. The club was formed in 1921. Their best result in the yo ...

and advanced to their first team in 1971. A year later he signed for

Luzern , neighboring_municipalities= Adligenswil, Ebikon, Emmen, Horw, Kriens, Malters, Meggen, Neuenkirch Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a ...

who at that time played in the Nationalliga B, the second tier of Swiss football. In his first season with his new club, Küttel played 25 of the club's 26 games and scored eight goals. Luzern finished level on points, joint second with Chênois, but missed out on promotion losing the play-off match after extra time. The following season Küttel again played 25 of the club's 26 games, but this season he scored 18 goals. He was the league's second-top scorer and the team were division champions and achieved promotion. In the top flight of football, the

1974–75 Nationalliga A Statistics of Swiss Super League in the 1974–75 season. Overview The Nationalliga A season 1974–75 was contested under 14 teams. These were the top 12 teams from the previous 1973–74 season and the two newly promoted teams Luzern and Veve ...

season did not run very well for the club and they suffered relegation. Küttel stayed with the club in their attempt to regain promotion. However, during the winter break Küttel was signed by Young Boys. At the end of the following season, 1976–77, Küttel and his club won 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 ...

. In the semifinal against

Lausanne-Sport FC Lausanne–Sport (also referred to as LS) is a Swiss football club based in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud. Founded in 1896, Lausanne Sport played in the Swiss Super League in their most recent 2021-22 season, the highest tier of football i ...

Seppi Küttel scored the only goal of the match in the 120th minute and so shot the Young Boys into the cup final. In the final on 11 April 1977 Young Boys beat St. Gallen 1–0. In the high-scoring league match on 14 May 1977 in the

Letzigrund is a stadium in Zürich, Switzerland, and the home of the athletics club LC Zürich, and the football clubs FC Zürich and Grasshopper Club Zürich. LC Zürich is a spin-off of FC Zürich whose members constructed the stadium in 1925. Grasshopper ...

against

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 ...

Küttel scored a

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within 17 minutes and four goals in total as Young Boys won 6–3. In the 1978–79 season the Young Boys again reached the cup final, which was drawn 1–1 with Servette, but in the replay they were defeated 2–3. Küttel joined Basel's first team for their 1979–80 season under trainer Helmut Benthaus. After eight test games and one in 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 ...

, Küttel made his domestic league debut for his new club in the home game in the

St. Jakob Stadium The St. Jakob Stadium was a football stadium in Basel, Switzerland and the former home of Swiss club FC Basel. It was built in view of the 1954 FIFA World Cup, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted several important matches, inc ...

on 11 August. He scored his first goal for them in the same game as Basel won 2–1 against

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. The

1979–80 Nationalliga A Statistics of Swiss Super League in the 1979–80 season. Overview It was contested by 14 teams, and FC Basel won the championship. First stage Table Results Playoff Table Results Sources Switzerland 1979–80 at RSSSF {{DEFAULTSO ...

was an exciting season. After the qualifying phase, Servette, Grasshopper Club and Basel were within three points of each other. The close rivalry remained until the end of the season. In the second last game Basel were hosts to Servette, winning 1–0. In the last match of the season Basel were away against

. A 4–2 victory confirmed Basel as champions, two points ahead of both Grasshoppers and Servette who finished second and third respectively. Erni Maissen and Detlev Lauscher led the team's top-scorers list after the qualifying phase, both with 13 league goals. At the end of the season they were joined by Küttel: all three managed to score 18 league goals during the season. In the qualification round 22, at home to Xamax on 26 April, Küttel scored four goals in a 6–1 win. Küttel stayed with the club for two seasons, in which he played 88 games for Basel and scored 38 goals; 51 games were in the Nationalliga A, 6 in cup matches, 2 in the

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 ...

and 29 were friendly games. He scored 24 goals in the domestic league, 3 in the Swiss Cup and the other 11 in friendlies. Following his time in Basel, Küttel moved on to play two seasons for

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 ...

in the second tier of Swiss football, before ending his active professional career and returning to play for his club of origin FC Emmenbrücke.

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:Küttel, Joseph FC Luzern players BSC Young Boys players FC Basel players FC Lugano players Swiss men's footballers Men's association football forwards 1952 births 1997 deaths People from Hochdorf District Footballers from the canton of Lucerne