Markus Pfirter


Markus Pfirter is a former Swiss footballer who played in the late 1950s, 60s and early 70s. He played mainly in the position as defender, but also as midfielder.

Football career

Club

Pfirter played in the youth teams of Concordia Basel and in 1957 advanced to their first team, who at that time played in the Nationalliga B the second tier of Swiss football. But two years later they were relegated to the 1. Liga. Pfirter remained another two years with the club.
In the summer of 1961 Pfirter transferred to FC Basel and played under manager Jiří Sobotka. He played for Basel for seven seasons. During this time Basel won the Swiss Cup twice, in 1962–63 and again in 1966–67. In the 1966–67 Nationalliga A season Basel also won the championship, and thus the double, under trainer Helmut Benthaus. Between the years 1961 and 1968 Pfirter played a total of 263 games for Basel scoring a total of 54 goals. 143 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 27 in the Swiss Cup, 28 in European competitions and 65 were friendly games. He scored 29 goal in the domestic league, 10 in the Cup and one in the International Football Cup. The other 14 were scored during the test games.
During the summer of 1968 Pfirter moved to St. Gallen. After the 1969–70 Nationalliga A season St. Gallen suffered relegation, but gained immediate promotion in the following season. After the 1971–72 Nationalliga A season Pfirter retired from active football.

International

Between 1965 and 1968 Pfirter played for the Swiss national team 9 times. He played his debut under team coach Alfredo Foni on 3 May 1965 in St. Jakob Stadium Basel as the Swiss lost 1–2 against Czechoslovakia.

Honours and Titles

Basel
St. Gallen