Karl Rappan (26 September 1905 – 2 January 1996) was an Austrian

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 ...

and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

. He played and managed mostly in Switzerland, where he won multiple titles. He had four tenures as coach of the Switzerland national team, which he managed in three

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

, and is the all-time leader in matches won as coach of the Swiss team. He introduced a major football strategy known as the "bolt", which gave origin to the ''

catenaccio ''Catenaccio'' () or The Chain is a tactical system in football with a strong emphasis on defence. In Italian, ''catenaccio'' means "door-bolt", which implies a highly organised and effective backline defence focused on nullifying opponents' ...

'' system. He also helped create the

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

Playing career

Rappan, born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, played as a

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and

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. As a teenager, he played for the club ''Donau Wien''. In 1924, he joined Wacker Vienna, where he played four years. He was selected to the Austria national team in while at Wacker. He then played one season at each of the clubs

FK Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (; known in English as Austria Vienna, and usually shortened to Austria (German: Österreich) in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the mo ...

and

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

, winning the 1929–30 Austrian league with the latter. Rappan then moved to Switzerland, where he started playing for

Servette FC Servette FC is a Swiss football club based in Geneva, founded in March 1890 with rugby as its first sporting activity, and named after the Geneva district of the same name. The football section was created on 17 January 1900. They play in the S ...

in 1931, becoming a player-coach until his retirement as a player in 1935, and winning the Swiss league twice with the club, in 1933 and 1934. In 1927, he was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

twice for the Austria national team, scoring one goal,Karl Rappan summary
- rapidarchiv.at - Official Archives of SK Rapid Wien, by Gerald Pichler and Herbert Pawlek - retrieved October 2006. against

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in a 6–0 win.

Coaching career

Rappan spent almost all of his managerial career – which extended from 1932 to 1963 – coaching Swiss teams and the Switzerland national team. After his role as player-coach at Servette, Rappan became a full-time coach and joined

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zürich, commonly referred to as simply GC, GCZ, or Grasshoppers, is a multisports club based in Zürich, Switzerland. The oldest and best known department of the club is its football team. With 27 titles, Grasshopper holds the ...

, managing the

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 ...

club from 1935 to 1948, and winning five domestic league titles and seven cups. In 1948, he returned to Servette for a second period at the club, now as coach only. He remained there until 1957, adding one more league title and one cup to his palmares. After Servette, Rappan had a one-season spell at FC Zürich. From 1960 to 1963, he coached the Switzerland national team exclusively, and after this last period in charge of the national squad, he joined club Lausanne-Sport, being their coach from 1964 to 1968, and winning one league title in 1965. After almost four decades of service in Swiss football, he returned to Austria to be the technical director of

– his former club as a player – for the 1969–70 season.

The "bolt"

During the early 1930s, when the use of the "WM" system was spreading, Rappan developed a tactical system under which players switched positions and duties depending on the game's pattern.Play of the game > Strategy and tactics
- britannica.com - by Richard C. Giulianotti, Jack D. Rollin, and Bernard Joy,

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...

. Retrieved October 2006. The system varied largely from the classic 2-3-5 formation and the WM, focusing in defense. The team would fold back into its own half and wait for the opponent's attack, conceding possession of the midfield. The system received the name of ''verrou'' or "bolt". It has also been called "Swiss bolt". Reportedly, Rappan looked for a system that was less rigid and less dependent on individual talent than the WM. It relied on collective work, and gave the amateurs of the time a chance to compensate to some extent for their lack of skill. The defensive strategy of the bolt relied on a mixture of zonal and man-marking. It was the first system to play four players in defense, using one of them as a "security bolt" supporting the other three. It is acknowledged that the bolt largely influenced the ''

'' (Italian for ''bolt'') and its use of the '' libero'' (sweeper) in defense. Rappan's system was never fully understood by many people at the time, and the coach himself never discussed it, keeping a certain mystery around it. It received both praise and criticism. The system did demonstrate to be successful at the 1938 World Cup. Switzerland eliminated

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in the first round, where the match that ended in a 1–1 draw was replayed, with the Swiss winning the second match 4–2. Two weeks prior to the World Cup, Switzerland had defeated

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in a friendly match.

Switzerland national team

Rappan had four different tenures as head coach of the Switzerland national team: 1937 to 1938, 1942 to 1949, 1953 to 1954, and 1960 to 1963. He managed Switzerland in 77 international matches, the most ever by any Swiss team coach. He won 29 matches, also a record, and lost 36 times, second-most all-time.Switzerland - International Matches since 1905
- by Erik Garin,

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

. With Rappan as its coach, Switzerland qualified to the World Cups of

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(where they beat

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and lost 7–5 to Austria in quarterfinals), and

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

. Rappan recorded three wins, one draw, and six losses as a coach in World Cup finals tournaments. His last match as Switzerland's coach was on 11 November 1963 against

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, a 2–2 draw.

After retirement

Rappan, who had the idea of creating a European league, helped Ernst Thommen, the Managing Director for the Swiss Football Pool, conceive the

, which started in 1961.Background on the Intertoto Cup
By Søren Florin Elbech, www.mogiel.net Rappan died on 2 January 1996 in

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

Honours

As a player

Rapid Wien * Austrian league: 1929–30 Servette * Swiss league: 1933, 1934

As coach

Grasshoppers * Swiss league: 1936–37, 1938–39, 1941–42, 1942–43, 1944–45 * Swiss cup: 1936–37, 1937–38, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1941–42, 1942–43, 1945–46 Servette * Swiss league: 1949-50 * Swiss cup: 1948-49