Background
As a small child “Karli” Odermatt grew up in Lucerne and later his family moved to Basel.
As a small child “Karli” Odermatt grew up in Lucerne and later his family moved to Basel.
He played as a midfielder or striker and is generally regarded as one of the best players ever to have worn the Football Club shirt. He played through, what is now thought to be, "s golden years under trainer and manager Helmut Benthaus with team-mates such as Paul Fischli, René Hasler and Ottmar Hitzfeld. A coach from the Football Club Concordia youth system discovered him on a school football field, invited him to a club training and just a few days later he started playing in their youth team
Later he played in their first team in the 1.
Liga. “Karli” Odermatt signed for Football Club in 1962 and in his debut, in September, against Football Club Lugano he scored two goals. In his first professional season, under manager Jiří Sobotka the mainly amtature team lifted the Swiss Cup, winning the final 2:0 against the favorites Grasshopper Club Zürich.
Two more cup wins were to follow during Odermatts time at the Saint Jakob Stadium. Four more league titles followed, in the years 1969, 1970, 1972 and 1973.
Odermatt was also a Swiss internationalist, and earned 50 caps in his ten year international career.
He played mainly in centre midfield alongside Köbi Kuhn, and played in all three games at the 1966 World Cup. He scored his first of ten international goals against England at Wembley Stadium on November 10, 1971. During 1992 he was appointed as caretaker manager of for a short time, together with Bruno Rahmen, after Ernst August Künnecke was sacked and before Friedel Rausch took over.
His biography «Karli none Gool!» was published in 2002.
Club Individual.