Paul Wolfisberg

Paul Wolfisberg (born June 15, 1933 in Horw (LU); † August 24, 2020 there ) was a Swiss football player and coach . As a player, he worked in the 1950s and 1960s for FC Luzern , with whom he won the Swiss Cup in 1960. He coached the Swiss national team from 1981 to 1985 and again in 1989 for a game .

Career

In his youth Wolfisberg played for the local FC Horw, before he moved to the then second division club FC Luzern at the beginning of the 1951/52 season at the age of 16 . 1953 promotion to the National League A . Wolfisberg was a full-time architect and trained structural draftsman; he began to focus on football late on. He was captain of the Lucerne team in the finals of the Swiss Cup 1959/60 the FC Grenchen with 1: 0 defeated. In National League A, he played 208 first division games for Lucerne until 1966, in which he scored 23 goals. In 1954/55 he also played ten first division games for FC Biel-Bienne because he was studying at the technical college in Biel, where he met once. He was then brought back to FC Luzern by Rudi Gutendorf , but continued to train with Biel-Bienne during his studies. After completing his studies, he earned around 800 francs as a footballer, and as an employee with a technical college degree he also received 800 francs.

At 33, he joined the SC Buochs his first job as coach and led the club in the National League B . Then he wanted to devote himself full-time to architecture again, but then continued training: SC Kriens and then his home club FC Luzern .

Finally, he also coached the national team for five years from 1981 to the end of 1985, after initially only playing four games had been agreed. His team, in which u. a. Lucien Favre , Heinz Lüdi , Gianpietro Zappa , Heinz Hermann and Andy Egli played, was called "Abbruch GmbH" or often also "The Wolves". Under his aegis, Switzerland beat England, the Netherlands and Italy, among others, and drew against Brazil. In 1989 he was again briefly interim coach of the team. Of a total of 51 international matches under him, Switzerland lost only 15, but did not participate in a tournament finals. In December 1993, after Bertalan Bicskei's dismissal, he was once again a brief interim coach at FC Luzern before he handed over to Timo Konietzka at the turn of the year .

During his time in Biel, he met his wife Marcelle Péclard, who came from Vevey and worked for Omega . The two married in 1957 and had a son and a daughter. His wife died of breast and bone cancer. His son is missing in the Philippines after a shipwreck. Until recently, Paul Wolfisberg, who had suffered a stroke in the meantime , lived in Horw, his birthplace, and managed his real estate. He could often be found in the stands at FC Luzern games. He died on August 24, 2020 at the age of 87 as a result of a faint attack in Horw.

literature

• Paul Wolfisberg in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

• Paul Wolfisberg in the database of weltfussball.de
• Martina Novak, Martin Hauzenberger: «You have to come to terms with age». (pdf; 1.3 MB) Interview with Paul Wolfisberg. In: slow motion 6/2016. May 10, 2016, archived from the original on September 30, 2018 (reproduced on moniquewittwer.ch). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Daniel Wyrsch: The former Swiss national coach Paul Wolfisberg died this morning at the age of 87 in Horw. In: luzernerzeitung.ch . August 24, 2020, accessed on August 24, 2020 .