Enrico Mazzola

Enrico Mazzola (born 7 April 1944) was an Italian footballer who played for FC Basel. He played mainly as a forward, but also as a midfielder.

Enrico Mazzola
Personal information
Full name Enrico Mazzola
Date of birth 7 April 1944
Position(s) Midfielder, Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1962–1966 FC Basel 17 (3)
1966– FC Breite
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Football career

Mazzola joined Basel's first team during their 1962–63 season under manager Jiří Sobotka. On 15 April 1963 the Wankdorf Stadium hosted the Cup Final and Basel played against favorites Grasshopper Club. Two goals after half time, one by Heinz Blumer and the second from Otto Ludwig gave Basel a 2–0 victory and their third Cup win in their history.[1] Mazzola made his league debut in the home game against Biel-Bienne in the Landhof on 19 May as Basel won 3–2.[2]

A well-documented curiosity was the fact that during the winter break of their 1963–64 season the team travelled on a world tour. This saw them visit British Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia, Mexico and the United States. First team manager Jiří Sobotka together with 16 players and 15 members of staff, supporters and journalists participated in this world tour from 10 January to 10 February 1964. Team captain Bruno Michaud filmed the events with his super-8 camara. The voyage around the world included 19 flights and numerous bus and train journeys. Club chairman, Lucien Schmidlin, led the group, but as they arrived in the hotel in Bangkok, he realised that 250,000 Swiss Francs were missing. The suitcase that he had filled with the various currencies was not with them. He had left it at home, but fortunately Swiss Air were able to deliver this to him within just a few days. During the tour a total of ten friendly/test games were played, these are listed in their 1963–64 season. Five wins, three draws, two defeats, but also three major injuries resulted from these test matches. A broken leg for Peter Füri, an eye injury for Walter Baumann and a knee injury for Bruno Michaud soon reduced the number of players to just 13.Mazzola was a member of this tour. He played in seven of these games.[3]

Between 1963 and 1966 Mazzola played 41 games for Basel and scored eight goals; 17 games were in the Swiss Serie A, 2 in the Swiss Cup, 4 were on European level and 18 were friendly games. He scored three goal in the domestic league, one in the Cup of the Alps and the other four during the test games.[4]

Honours and Titles

Basel

References
  1. "Grasshopper Club - FC Basel 0:2 (0:0)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
  2. "FC Basel - FC Biel-Bienne 3:2 (2:0)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
  3. Zindel, Josef (2018), "Die ersten 125 Jahre: 1964", The unbelievable world tour, pages 60 and 61, Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel
  4. "Enrico Mazzola - FCB-Statistik". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

Sources
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