Max "Xam" Abegglen (11 April 1902 – 25 August 1970) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. Throughout his career, he played for FC Lausanne until 1923 when he transferred to

Grasshopper Zurich Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshoppe ...

. He was the brother of André 'Trello' Abegglen and Jean Abegglen, both also players of the Swiss national team. Abegglen played for the Switzerland national team 68 times, scoring 34 goals. He was the sole leading goalscorer for the team until Kubilay Türkyilmaz's 34th goal in his 62nd and final international in 2001. Their records were broken on 30 May 2008 with

Alexander Frei Alexander Frei or Alex Frei (born 15 July 1979) is a Swiss professional football coach and a former player who played as a forward. He is currently the manager of Basel. He began his career at Basel, going on to various other clubs in Switzerla ...

's 35th goal. Abegglen scored a hat-trick in his first international, against

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

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 ...

on 19 November 1922. His only other hat-trick was in the Football at the 1924 Summer Olympics on 24 May 1924, with three in a 9–0 win over

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. The Swiss won the silver medal after losing the final 3–0 to

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. Abegglen missed the

1934 FIFA World Cup The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934. The 1934 World Cup was the first in w ...

. In his final match, he was captain as Switzerland lost 1–0 to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

on 2 May 1937. The club

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 ...

, twice Swiss champions in the 1980s, is named after "Xam" Max Abegglen. He also competed at the

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The op ...

and the

1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad ( nl, Spelen van de IXe Olympiade) and commonly known as Amsterdam 1928, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from ...

References

External links

Max "Xam" Abegglen – Goals in International Matches
by Erik Garin and Roberto Mamrud,

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 ...

. * * 1902 births 1970 deaths Swiss men's footballers Switzerland international footballers Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 1928 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Switzerland Olympic silver medalists for Switzerland Grasshopper Club Zürich players FC Lausanne-Sport players Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1924 Summer Olympics Association football forwards People from Neuchâtel Sportspeople from the canton of Neuchâtel {{Switzerland-Olympic-medalist-stub