Rudolf Ramseyer

Rudolf Ramseyer (born September 17, 1897 , † September 13, 1943 ) was a Swiss football player who made 59 international matches for the SFV national team from 1920 to 1931 and scored four goals.

career

Clubs until 1933

Ramseyer, who grew up in the Breitenrain district of Bern , had to hide his soccer shoes from his parents as a boy when he came home after the “Tschutten”. "Rüedu's" father was a traditional gymnast and ran a construction business that his son was to take over one day. From 1913 he went through the club stations FC Helvetia, FC Bern, FC Baden, La Chaux-de Fonds and joined BSC Young Boys in 1918 . In the early years of his career, the powerful player who dominated the ball with both legs mostly stormed on the left wing. In his first season with the black and yellow he came in Serie A, Group West, in second place. In the second year, 1919/20, "Rüedu" first won the title in the Central regional relay and prevailed in the final round against Servette Geneva and GC Zurich and was thus at the side of his captain Albert Osterwalder and his teammate Alfred Berger, Hans Beyeler and Hans Funk Swiss champions . The assertive left winger made his debut in the national team on June 27, 1920 at the international match in Zurich against Germany due to his strong performance in the championship round with YB. The team around Captain Ernst Kaltenbach won the game with 4-1 goals against the DFB team and the debutant scored the goal in the 77th minute to make it 4-0. For the German representation, after a break of over six years due to the First World War, it was the resumption of international matches after April 5, 1914 in Amsterdam against the Netherlands. With Heiner Stuhlfauth , Hans Kalb , Carl Riegel , Leonhard Seiderer and Georg Wunderlich , five players from the new football stronghold of Nuremberg-Fürth made their debut in the DFB team. In the Swiss ranks, players from Basel (Old Boys, FC and Nordstern), Bern (FC and YB) and Zurich were in the majority. The French-speaking Switzerland boycotted this international match for political reasons.

With his club Young Boys, Ramseyer also made it to the finals in 1920/21. After a 3-1 win against Servette Geneva on April 24th, he and his teammates - Hans Pulver , Albert Osterwalder, Paul Fässler - lost the game and the championship on May 8th, 1921 against GC Zurich and therefore became Swiss runner-up in 1921. In 1922/23, the YB team trained by Jimmy Hogan was the victim of protests and association disputes with other clubs. The original regional champion for Central Switzerland, YB, as well as FC Young Fellows Zurich for Eastern Switzerland and Servette Geneva for Western Switzerland, could not take part in the finals. In his place, the local competitor FC Bern took on Zurich and Geneva. In the end, however, the Swiss Serie A football championship of the 1922/23 season was not awarded. Ramseyer's team-mates this year were goalkeeper Pulver and field players Botz, Ruoff, Fässler, Osterwalder, Kirschner, Hess, von Arx I and II, and Funk.

After the Ramseyer carpenter's workshop was not taken into account when the contract was awarded for the construction of the Wankdorf Stadium, the acidic “Ruedu” moved to FC Bern in the Neufeld stadium. The fact that one of the “heroes of the 1924 Olympics” changed clubs out of anger within the city caused quite a stir in the federal capital. In the cup competition for the Swiss Cup in 1925/26, which was held for the first time , the national team defender and FC Bern reached the final on April 11, 1926 in Zurich against GC. With Jakob Schneebeli , “Ruedu” formed the FC defender couple, but GC won the cup with a 2-1 win. Until the end of his career in 1933, the then Swiss national record player and 38-time captain could no longer play a decisive role in the final round of the Swiss championship with FC Bern. He and his teammates from the Neufeld stadium could not change the leadership role of GC Zurich, YB and Servette Geneva.

In his time he was one of the most popular Swiss athletes. Ramseyer was especially popular because he embodied traditional Swiss fighting power and determination. In addition, he always had an excellent saying in store and was a "smooth Cheib", a happy fellow. At the same time, he fulfilled the expectations of a responsible Swiss man: Rudolf Ramseyer was a good family man and after 1933, when he stopped playing football, a good boss of the family-owned construction company.

Shortly before his 46th birthday, he died of a stroke.

National team, 1920 to 1931

After his debut in the "Nati" on June 27, 1920 in a 4-1 win against Germany as the left wing, ten other appointments followed until Ramseyer first played on June 17, 1923 in Copenhagen in the international match against Denmark (3-2 defeat) on the Defender position and also exercised the captaincy. In January 1924, the Technical Commission selected around 40 players in the run-up to the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris and placed them in four training centers under the direction of Izidor Kürschner (GC coach), Jimmy Hogan (YB coach) and Teddy Duckworth (Servette coach ) trained regularly. With the so far highest victory of the "Nati" with 9-0 goals against Lithuania on May 25th, the Confederates started with Captain Paul Schmiedlin as the stopper and the defensive network consisting of Hans Pulver (goalkeeper) and the defenders Adolphe Reymond and Ramseyer as the final triangle the Olympic football tournament . Paul Sturzenegger was the first Helvete to score four goals in an international match. The coach in Paris was Duckworth. In the next round, the Swiss team needed two games to prevail against the representation of Czechoslovakia. On May 28, the first game ended 1-1 after extra time, just two days later a goal from Robert Pache in the 87th minute decided the game for Switzerland. Again the Confederates had to face Italy two days later on June 2nd after a break of only one day. With his goal in the 60th minute to 2-1, Max Abegglen decided the match. In the semifinals, “Xam” Abegglen stood out as a two-time goalscorer and after their 2-1 win over Sweden on June 5, Switzerland was the unofficial European champion, finalist of the 1924 Olympic tournament in Paris and undoubtedly the European discovery of the tournament. At the Stade Colombes on June 9th, Uruguay deservedly prevailed in front of 40,522 spectators with 3-0 goals. In the celestes, José Leandro Andrade was described by experts as "the best footballer in the world" and there were also other outstanding experts such as José Nasazzi , Héctor Scarone , José Pedro Cea and Pedro Petrone in the team of the Olympic champion.

The "Nati" could not maintain the high level of performance in the next few years, but it was good for individual successes. On December 12, 1926, the team around captain Ramseyer - since April 25 of that year he was the sole record international in Switzerland - won 3-2 goals in Munich against Germany. With the 59th international match on June 16, 1931 in Vienna against Austria, Rudolf Ramseyer ended his "Nati" career three months before his 34th birthday. In the 2-0 defeat, he and Severino Minelli formed the Helvetic defenders.

literature

• Beat Jung (Ed.): The Nati. The history of the Swiss national football team. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-89533-532-0 .
• Christian Koller (Ed.): Great moments in Swiss football. LIT Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-0936-2
• Wolfgang Bortlik: “Hopp Schwiiz!”, Football in Switzerland or the art of honorable defeat. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2008, ISBN 978-3-462-03995-5
• Gottfried Schmid (Ed.): The golden book of Swiss football. Domprobstei publishing house, 1953

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Bortlik: Hopp Schwiiz! , Page 71
2. ↑ Gottfried Schmid: The golden book of Swiss football. Page 51
3. ↑ Wolfgang Bortlik: Hopp Schwiiz! , Page 72/73