Mario "Lupo" Cantaluppi (born 11 April 1974) is a Swiss former 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 ...

who played as a defender or

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

Born in Schlieren, Switzerland, Mario Cantaluppi started his professional career with Grasshopper Club Zürich in 1990 and won the 1990–91 Nationaliga A in his debut season. In 1993, he dropped down a division to sign 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, a ...

who were playing in the Nationalliga B at the time. He signed the contract and joined the team under head-coach Claude Andrey. After playing in three test games, Cantaluppi played his domestic league debut for his new club in the home game in the St. Jakob Stadium on 28 July 1993 as Basel were defeated 1–2 by local rivals

Old Boys The terms Old Boys and Old Girls are the usual expressions in use in the United Kingdom for former pupils of primary and secondary schools.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While these are traditionally associated with independent schools, they are ...

. He scored his first goal for his club in the away game in La Blancherie on 14 August. It was the last goal of the match as Basel won 3–0 against

SR Delémont SR Delémont is a Swiss football club based in Delémont and founded in 1909. It played in the Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the ...

. During that season, his team mates were the likes of Swiss international goalkeeper

Stefan Huber Stefan Huber (born 14 June 1966) is a Swiss former footballer who played as a goalkeeper during the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. Club career Huber played his youth football by local club FC Unterstrass. He then moved to Grasshopper Club and b ...

, defenders Massimo Ceccaroni,

Marco Walker Marco Walker (born 2 May 1970) is a Swiss football manager and a former international who played as a defender during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Club career Walker started his youth football with local club FC Bellach. From 1983 with he was ...

and

Samir Tabakovic Samir (variantly spelled Sameer) is a male name found commonly in the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe. In Arabic, Samir () means holy, jovial, loyal or charming. In Albanian, it translates literally as “so good” but the connotation is clo ...

, the midfielders Reto Baumgartner,

Martin Jeitziner Martin Jeitziner (born 13 January 1963) is a retired Swiss football midfielder who played in the 1980s and 1990s. Football career Jeitziner played his youth football with FC Basel and advanced to their first team during their 1980–81 season ...

Admir Smajić Admir Smajić (born 7 September 1963) is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player. He played for the Yugoslav national team and the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. Club career Partizan Born in Bijeljina,Ørjan Berg Ørjan Berg (born 20 August 1968) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is the current sporting director of Bodø/Glimt. Berg retired at the end of the 2006 season, having played for Bodø/Glimt, Wetting ...

and the Swiss international strikers

Dario Zuffi Dario Zuffi (born 7 December 1964) is a Swiss football coach and former international player. He is currently employed as assistant coach for FC Winterthur. Career Playing career Zuffi played his youth football with the local Winterthur team ...

and

Philippe Hertig Philippe Hertig (born 2 July 1965) is a Swiss former footballer who played as a striker during the 1980s and 1990s. He is banker and is now assistant director of Mirabaud Group. In 2009 Hertig joined the Swiss Football Association as member of ...

. Together they won the promotion/relegation group and became Nationalliga B champions and thus won promotion to the top flight of Swiss football. This after six seasons in the second tier. In the summer of 1996 he signed for Servette FC, but rejoined Basel three years later. He joined German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club 1. FC Nürnberg in 2004 and played there for the next two seasons before returning to Switzerland to play for

FC Luzern Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (german: Luzern). It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league s ...

. In January 2008, he joined Belgium's K. Sint-Truidense V.V. and played there until summer 2009. In 2010, he was for about five months player-manager of SC Buochs.

International career

Cantaluppi made 23 appearance for the Switzerland national team. He helped Switzerland qualify for

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

but was left out of the final squad for the tournament after falling out with national coach

Köbi Kuhn Jakob "Köbi" Kuhn (12 October 1943 – 26 November 2019) was a Swiss football player and manager. During his playing career he played primarily for FC Zürich and won 63 caps for Switzerland, one of which was at the 1966 FIFA World Cup in Engl ...

. Cantaluppi never played for Switzerland afterwards.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cantaluppi, Mario Living people 1974 births People from Schlieren, Switzerland Footballers from the canton of Zürich Swiss men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Men's association football defenders Switzerland men's international footballers Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players Bundesliga players Belgian Pro League players Grasshopper Club Zürich players FC Basel players Servette FC players 1. FC Nürnberg players FC Luzern players Sint-Truidense V.V. players TuS Koblenz players Challenger Pro League players Swiss expatriate men's footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium