Walter Müller (2 January 1920 – 14 December 2010) was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

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 ...

. He played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Club football

In 1942 Müller moved from his home club FC Birsfelden to

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, and ...

during their 1942–43 season. His transfer sum (CHF 2500.00) was enormous for its time. Müller played his domestic league debut for his new club in the away game on 5 September 1943 as Basel drew 1–1 with

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 ...

. Müller spent fourteen years between the posts for RotBlau, mainly as their first choice goalkeeper, playing in total 380 matches. 249 of these games were in the Swiss Nationalliga and 42 were in 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 ...

. The other 89 were friendly games. His biggest success was the championship title in Basel's 1952–53 season. In addition to this title, Müller also reached the

final twice, one victory and one defeat. At the end of the 1943–44 cup season, on 10 April 1944 in the

Wankdorf Stadium The Wankdorf Stadium (german: Wankdorfstadion, ) was a football stadium in the Wankdorf quarter of Bern, Switzerland, and the former home of Swiss club BSC Young Boys. It was built in 1925, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted se ...

in Bern, Basel were defeated in the final by Lausanne Sport through three goals scored in the last five minutes. In Basel's 1946–47 season they won the final 3–0 against the same club. In the

Stadion Neufeld Stadion Neufeld is a multi-use stadium in Bern, Switzerland. It is the home ground of FC Bern and the junior team of BSC Young Boys. The capacity of the stadium is 14,000 spectators, including 3000 seats. BSC Young Boys used the stadium from 2001/ ...

on 7 April 1947 Paul Stöcklin scoring all three goals.

National team

Müller never made it to an appearance in the

Swiss national football team The Switzerland national football team (german: Schweizer Fussballnationalmannschaft, it, Nazionale di calcio della Svizzera, french: Équipe nationale suisse de football, rm, Squadra naziunala da ballape da la Svizra) represents Switzerland ...

, however, he was in the squad for more than five years as their substitute goalie.

Curiosity

The that time

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

of Basel Ernst Hufschmid played his last domestic league match on 23 April 1950 in

Espenmoos Espenmoos Stadium, is a football stadium in St. Gallen, Switzerland. It was the home ground of the FC St. Gallen Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gal ...

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

, as Basel were defeated by

. But in the Basel's 1950–51 season he played one more match, it was his last match as active football player and this he played as goalkeeper. On 10 August 1950 Football Club Basel played against Eishockey Club Basel. This was a return game for the ice hockey game EHC-FCB in December 1949. The football team won the football match 14–5. Because Hufschmid played as goalkeeper Walter Müller played as striker and he scored six goals in this test game.

Titles and Honours

Basel *

winner: 1946–47 * Swiss League Champion: 1952–53

References

Sources