Frank Séchehaye

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Frankie in the game against the Netherlands in 1934. With Beb Bakhuys (center) and Kick Smit (right) in the picture

Frank Séchehaye , nickname "Frankie" (born November 3, 1907 in Geneva ; † February 13, 1982 in Lausanne ) was a Swiss football goalkeeper and automobile racing driver . From 1927 to 1935 he made 37 international matches for the Swiss national football team .

career

Clubs, 1921 to 1937

As the son of a Swiss doctor and missionary, Frank Séchehaye spent most of his childhood in what is now Mozambique, where he discovered his passion for football. After returning to Switzerland, the 14-year-old signed up for the youth team of FC Thonex, later CS Chênois . At the age of 16 he played with Étoile Carouge in the then regionally divided top division and was a member of the national team at 17. Not yet 20 years old, he made his debut in the "Nati" on April 17, 1927 at the international match in Santander against Spain. In addition to his talent, his personal training methods also contributed to this performance development: He had dug a ditch in his parents' garden in Geneva, over which he dived for several hours a day to improve his jumping ability as a goalkeeper. In addition, he worked meticulously on the art of positional play in order to reduce the shooting angle.

His special approach in training enabled the goalkeeper to use faked reactions to induce the striker to fire the shot prematurely and as he wanted. He didn't stop on the line and jumped straight into the game. He was much more than just the conductor of the defense and his long throws brought the field players into the build-up game with easily controllable balls. In addition to his above-average athletic qualities, he was also characterized by the elegance of his parades and a sense of well-groomed sportswear. With his cap pulled over his forehead, the black turtleneck and the white belt around the waist, he was still a style-defining factor for later generations of keepers.

For the 1929/30 round, the national goalkeeper of Étoile Carouge signed with Club Français Paris , moved to France and won the championship of Paris with CF. In his second year with the pink-blacks he successfully prevailed in the Coupe de France 1930/31 and won the final on May 3, 1931 in Colombes in Paris with 3-0 goals against Sports Olympiques Montpelliérains .

After two rounds he returned to Switzerland and joined coach Karl Rappan's team , Servette FC Genève . In 1933 and 1934 he celebrated two championship wins in Switzerland with the garnet reds . When a year-round championship was held throughout Switzerland for the first time in 1933/34, the fast and powerful Georges Aeby stormed on the left wing and "Frankie" had a large share of the goal difference of 100:29 goals with 49 points and the main competitor GC Zurich in 30 Match days could be kept at a distance of three points. Coach Karl Rappan still played in defense and center forward Leopold Kielholz set a record for the ages with 40 goals. Runner-up GC - André Abegglen , Severino Minelli , Oskar Rohr , Sirio Vernati - won the Swiss Cup on April 2, 1934 with a 2-0 win against Servette , thus preventing Séchehaye and colleagues from double.

After the World Cup in 1934, Séchehaye switched to Lausanne-Sports and in 1935 immediately celebrated the double with the team from the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise . Lausanne won the Swiss Cup with a 10-0 win in the final against Nordstern Basel , with striker Willy Jäggi standing out as a five-time goalscorer. When in 1935/36 the title was defended in National League A with three points ahead of runner-up Young Fellows Zurich , goalkeeper Séchehaye conceded only 23 goals in 26 round games.

On December 22, 1936, the elegant Cerberus - he is still one of the best goalkeepers in Swiss football history - suffered a serious knee injury (meniscus) in the championship game against FC La Chaux-de-Fonds and was then unable to play a round match for Lausanne . Without the outstanding defensive conductor, the blue and white Vaudois fell back to eighth place in the table and were also in the cup final on March 29, 1937 by GC Zurich  - André Abegglen , Alfred Bickel , Severino Minelli , Hermann Springer , Sirio Vernati  - with 0:10 Goals outclassed.

For the round 1937/38 Séchehaye undertook in Morges , 10 km west of Lausanne , at the local FC Forward to continue his activity as a player-coach, but chronic knee problems forced him to end his playing career at the end of 1937.

In later years he was a coach at Lausanne-Sports, Servette Geneva and FC Sion. He passed on his experience as a goalkeeping coach to the next generation. Above all to his student, the later national goalkeeper Erich Burgener (64 international matches from 1973 to 1986). He was a role model for many Swiss ball catchers.

After the early end of his career as a player, Séchehaye exercised not only his coaching work and running a restaurant in Lausanne but also car racing . In April 1949 he took part in the Gran Premio di San Remo with a Maserati sports car and in May he came third in Erlen at the Prize of Eastern Switzerland on a Maserati 4CL behind his compatriots Toulo de Graffenried and Richard Ramseyer .

National team, 1927 to 1935

The goalkeeping performance of the 19-year-old's debut in the "Nati" on April 17, 1927 in Santander in the 1-0 defeat against Spain was so outstanding that his counterpart Ricardo Zamora , then the most famous goalkeeper in the world, over after the final whistle the entire field was running to congratulate the Étoile Carouge player. "Frankie" Séchehaye took part in the 1928 Olympic tournament in Amsterdam and in 1934 in the 1934 World Cup in Italy. The game on May 28 at the 1928 Olympics against Germany was his eighth international appearance. Richard Hofmann scored three goals in the 4-0 success of Reich trainer Otto Nerz's team and the Confederates - Rudolf Ramseyer , Willy Jäggi , Max Abegglen - who were looked after by the Englishman Teddy Duckworth - had no chance. His national team career was interrupted by his two-year intermezzo from 1929 to 1931 with Francais Paris and his comeback did not come back until December 6, 1931 in Brussels, after his return to Switzerland, at the game against Belgium.

Switzerland opened the 1934 World Cup in Italy on May 27, 1934 in Milan with a 3-2 win over the Netherlands. "Frankie's" club colleague Leopold Kielholz was a two-time goalscorer. In the quarter-finals, Switzerland met Czechoslovakia in Turin on May 31. The game was played at a high level and was characterized by outstanding goalkeeping performances by Frank Séchehaye and František Plánička . Oldřich Nejedlý decided with a goal in the 82nd minute to 3-2 the game for the later finalists.

With his 37th international game on November 10, 1935 in Budapest against Hungary, the career of Séchehaye in the "Nati" ended.

literature

  • Beat Jung (Ed.): The Nati. The history of the Swiss national football team. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-89533-532-0 .
  • Swiss Football League (Philippe Guggisberg): 75 years of the Swiss Football League. 2009, ISBN 978-3-9523556-0-2 .
  • International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS): Switzerland (1905–1940). International matches.
  • BF Hoffmann : The legendary World Cup goalkeepers. A lexicon. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89533-498-7 .

Web links

Commons : Frank Séchehaye  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hoffmann (2005), p. 181.
  2. ↑ Hoffmann (2005), p. 182.
  3. ↑ Hoffmann (2005), p. 183.
  4. ^ IV Gran Premio di San Remo. www.statsf1.com, accessed on November 18, 2017 (French).
  5. ↑ Jung (2006), p. 364.
  6. ^ II Prize of Eastern Switzerland. (No longer available online.) Www.teamdan.com, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on November 18, 2017 (English).
  7. ^ Hardy Greens: WM Encyclopedia 1930-2006. AGON, 2002, p. 60.
personal data
SURNAME Séchehaye, Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frankie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss football goalkeeper
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1982
Place of death Lausanne , Switzerland