Philippe Cravero (born 2 September 1970) 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 le ...

who played as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Football career

Cravero began his career at

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 ...

in 1990 where he played for four years, during which time he had a loan spell at

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 ...

, before joining

Étoile Carouge FC Étoile Carouge FC is a Swiss football team based in Carouge and founded in 1904. It currently plays in the Promotion League and holding home games at ''Stade de la Fontenette'', which seats up to 3,690 spectators. History Carouge had surviv ...

in 1994. Cravero joined

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 ...

's first team for their 1998–99 season under head coach

Guy Mathez Guy Mathez is a Swiss football manager from Canton of Jura. He is best known for coaching Servette FC from 1982 until 1985 and FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club base ...

. After playing in three test games he played 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 25 July 1998 as Basel won 2–1 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 ...

. He scored his first goal for the club in the next season, on 21 July 1999 in the home game against Grasshopper Club as the two teams played a 1–1 draw. In the

2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup finals were won by Aston Villa, Paris Saint-Germain and Troyes. All three teams advanced to the UEFA Cup. First round First leg ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ...

Cravero and his team reached the final and played against

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

. However, after a draw in the first leg Villa won the return leg 4–1 and the tie 5–2 on aggregate. At the end of the

2001–02 Nationalliga A Statistics of National League A in the 2001–02 football season. Nationalliga A The Qualification Round to the League season 2001–02 was contested by twelve teams. The first eight teams of the regular season (or Qualification) were then to com ...

season Basel, with head coach

Christian Gross Christian Jürgen Gross (born 14 August 1954) is a Swiss football manager and former player who most recently coached Schalke 04. He played as a sweeper and central midfielder. Gross was manager of Basel from 1 July 1999 to 27 May 2009, winning ...

, won the Swiss championship and the Swiss Cup and thus the domestic double. Soon after the

2002–03 Nationalliga A Statistics of Nationalliga A (french: Ligue Nationale A, it, Lega Nazionale A) in the 2002–03 football season. Nationalliga A Overview The Qualification Round to the League season 2002–03 was contested by twelve teams. The first eight team ...

season had begun Cravero moved to

Servette Servette is a district of the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The district's name comes from the Latin word for forest, ''silva'', and means "little forest". Its name alludes to Servette's rural past, before Geneva grew beyond its walls and incorpora ...

, first on loan then definitive. During his four and a bit seasons with the club, between the years 1998 and 2002 Cravero played a total of 185 games for Basel scoring a total of 5 goals. 108 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 8 in the Swiss Cup, 16 in the European competitions (

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 UIC) and 53 were friendly games. He scored two goals in the domestic league and the other three were scored during the test games. Cravero played five seasons for

and then retired in 2006.

Honours

FC Basel * Swiss Championship: 2001–02 *

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 ...

: 2001–02

References

Sources

* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage

External links

* 1970 births Living people Footballers from Geneva Men's association football fullbacks Swiss men's footballers Swiss Super League players Neuchâtel Xamax FCS players FC Basel players Servette FC players Étoile Carouge FC players {{Switzerland-footy-defender-stub