Remo Brügger

Remo Brügger (born 6 December 1960) is a Swiss former footballer who played who played in the 1980s and early 1990s as goalkeeper.

Remo Brügger
Personal information
Full name Remo Brügger
Date of birth (1960-12-06) 6 December 1960
Place of birth Switzerland
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1979–1984 SC Zug
1984–1987 FC Wettingen 88 (0)
1987–1988 FC Luzern 1 (0)
1988–1989 FC Basel 25 (0)
1989–1990 FC St. Gallen 36 (0)
1991–1993 FC Ascona
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Football career

Brügger's football career began at the age of 14 and he only became goalie by chance, because the team needed one. But he did his job very well and received call ups for the junior national team.[1]

In 1978, at the age of 17, he became goalkeeper number 1 for SC Zug in the 1st League, at that time the third tier of Swiss football. At the end of the 1982–83 they finished their group in second position and thus qualified for the play-offs for promotion to the Nationalliga B. In first round of the play-offs they defeated BSC Old Boys and in the semi-final they defeated Red Star Zürich. Although they were defeated by Martigny-Sports in the final they achieved promotion. One year later, with the new, young head coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, they ended the 1983–84 season as Nationalliga B champions. Brügger and the team achieved immediate promotion to the Nationalliga A, for the first and only time in the clubs history.[2]

During the pre-season to the 1984–85 Nationalliga A, Brügger moved to the established NLA club FC Wettingen, where he was the regular goalkeeper for three years - until Jörg Stiel ousted him at the end of the 1986–87 season. The following season Brügger signed for Luzern, where he was a substitute for regular goalie Roger Tschudin and only came to one first team appearance in the league.

Brügger joined FC Basel who had just suffered relegation. Under head coach Urs Siegenthaler, Brügger became first team regular goalkeeper in their 1988–89 season. After five test matches, Brügger played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game on 23 July 1988 as Basel played a 1–1 draw against Zürich.[3]

However, Brügger suffered a serious car accident in January 1989. Because he was ruled out of training for over two months, Thomas Grüter was brought in on loan from FC St. Gallen. Because Grüter had convinced trainer Siegenthaler so much, it was Brügger who went to St. Gallen in a player swap during the summer break. During his one season with Basel, Brügger played a total of 34 games for Basel. 25 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, three in the Swiss Cup and six were friendly games.[4]

Brügger was part of the St. Gallen team with Iván Zamorano and Hugo Eduardo Rubio that stormed the unofficial title of "winter champion" in the first stage of the 1989–90 Nationalliga A season. He played his debut on 22 July 1989 in the home match against Sion. His qualities as a goalkeeper were apparent, he was more than able to meet the club's expectations and was undisputed throughout the season. During his season with the club he played 40 competition matches, 36 in the domestic league and four in the Swiss Cup. Nevertheless, his career in St. Gallen ended sobering: In May it was announced that the club would sign Jörg Stiel and that there was no more space for him. Following this Brügger could not find a new club and was still searching in vain during the winter break of 1990–91 and then he ended his professional career and joined FC Ascona.[5]

The goalie with many lives

Agile goalkeepers are often referred to as cats. But that is not Brügger’s only association to the animal, because Brügger also appears to have nine lives as well.

At the age of 14, Brügger fell down a 150-meter-high slope while skiing and crashed into a tree. He woke up in hospital four days later. In the accident he suffers a contusion of the brain and a severe brain and skull trauma. At the age of 20, the trained plumber fell eleven meters from the scaffolding and landed on a pallet with bricks. Quotation Brügger: "Virtually everything in the pelvic area was broken and I also had a severe concussion." In January 1989, the then 28-year-old lost control of his car on a country road at excessive speed. It overturned, Brügger was thrown through the windshield, landed on the road and was hit by another car. He got away with abrasions, bruises and a shoulder injury.

As he started working for his brother's scaffolding company in Ticino in 1991, he joined FC Ascona for two seasons. He then played for a short time for FC Minusio until he crashed into a goal post during an intervention and broke his nose - again. Quotation Brügger: "That was the end of my football career."[1]

Brügger is divorced and has one son. Since 2015 he has been living in Davos and works for the general contractor Baulink as «Mädchen für alles» as he calls it. He is a chauffeur, looks after real estate and does manual maintenance work.

References
  1. David Gadze (22 April 2017). "Evergreen: Der Goalie mit den vielen Leben". The goalie with many lives. St.Galler Tagblatt. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
  2. Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1983/84". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
  3. Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "FC Zürich - FC Basel 1:1 (1:1)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
  4. Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "Remo Brügger - FCB-Statistik". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
  5. Beat Haueter (7 December 2013). "Remo Brügger". FCSG-Data. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

Sources
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