Adrian Knup
Personal information
Date of birth (1968-07-02) 2 July 1968
Place of birth Liestal, Switzerland
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1986–1988 FC Basel 40 (11)
1988–1989 FC Aarau 33 (13)
1989–1992 FC Luzern 74 (20)
1992–1994 VfB Stuttgart 53 (20)
1994–1996 Karlsruher SC 39 (11)
1996 Galatasaray 5 (2)
1996–1998 FC Basel 29 (8)
Total 273 (85)
International career
1989–1996 Switzerland 49 (26)
Managerial career
2007–2008[1] Switzerland (team leader)
2009–2017 FC Basel (head of youth)
2012–2017 FC Basel (vice president)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Adrian Knup (born 2 July 1968) is a Swiss former professional football striker who played in the 1980s and 1990s.[2]

He was capped 49 times and scored 26 goals for the Switzerland national team between 1989 and 1996, including three games at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. From 2009 to 2017 he worked as the head coach of the youth sector at FC Basel and was also the vice president of the club between 2012 and 2017.[3][4]

Club career

Knup played his youth football with local team Basel. He advanced to their first team for their 1985–86 season and signed his first professional contract under manager Helmut Benthaus. After playing in one test match, Knup played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game at the St. Jakob Stadium on 19 April 1986 as Basel won 5–0 against Baden.[5] In his first season Knup had just seven league appearances.

During their 1986–87 season Knup advanced and became a regular in the starting team. Knup was a typical No. 9 and was famed for the power he could get behind his headers. He scored his first league goal for his club in the first game of the season on 9 August 1986. It was the last goal of the away match against, but it could not help the team, as Basel were defeated 1–3 against Sion.[6] In the following match one week later

Knup played three seasons with the club and received a call up to the Switzerland national team. But with Basel, apart from one title in the Uhrencup in 1986, he had no big successes. In their 1987–88 season his teammates included goalie Urs Suter, the defenders Peter Bernauer and Massimo Ceccaroni, the Scott Gordon Duffield Smith and two other Switzerland national team players Peter Nadig and Dominique Herr. Despite this personally strongly occupied team Basel were relegated to the Nationalliga B after the 1987–88 Nationalliga A season.[7] One match in this season receives a particular mention, the away game on 29 November 1987 and Knup netted a hat-trick between the 37th and 71st minute as Basel won 4–0 against Zürich.[8]

Following the relegation he left the team and joined FC Aarau in 1988. He spent only one season at Aarau and signed for FC Luzern in 1989 where he was an immediate success. In 1990, he was voted Luzern's Player of the Year. He was then signed by Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart in 1992 where he played until 1994 when he signed for Karlsruher SC. He reached the 1995–96 DFB-Pokal final with Karlsruhe but they were beaten 1–0 by 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He then had a short spell with Galatasaray S.K. in Turkey before returning to Switzerland.

During the winter break of their 1996–97 season knup returned to his club of origin under manager Karl Engel. But Knup needed some six matches before he found the binding to his new teammates and then it came to being. He scored two goals at home against Grasshopper Club,[9] another goal in the home match against Xamax[10] and another two goals in the home match against Aarau.[11]

Knup stayed with the club for another season before he retired from his active football career. Between the years 1982 to 1988 and again from 1996 to 1998 Knup played a total of 138 games for Basel scoring a total of 54 goals. exactly 100 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, eight in the Swiss Cup and 30 were friendly games. He scored 29 goals in the domestic league, four in the cup and the other 21 were scored during the test games.[12]

International career

Knup played for the Switzerland national team between 1989 and 1996. He scored 26 goals in 49 games. Two of his goals came against Romania in a 4–1 win at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA.

Personal life

After retirement from his playing career, Knup became a commentator for Swiss League matches. On 25 May 2007, he was given the job as a coach for the Switzerland national team but demissioned after UEFA Euro 2008.

At the FC Basel AGM in June 2009 Knup was elected into the club's board of directors under club president Gigi Oeri. From 2009 to 2012 he worked as the head coach for the club's the youth sector. At the AGM in 2012, Ms Oeri stood down and Bernard Heusler became the club chairman, Knup was elected as vice president of the club.[13][14] He held this position until 2017. Knup, president Heusler, finance director Stephan Werthmüller, director of football Georg Heitz and marketing director René Kamm all stood downsold together and Heusler sold the clubs Holding AG to Benrhard Burgener.

Career statistics

Scores and results list Switzerland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Knup goal.
List of international goals scored by Adrian Knup
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
111 October 1989St. Jakob Stadium, Basel, Switzerland Belgium1–02–21990 World Cup qualifier
213 December 1989Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain Spain1–11–2Friendly
32 June 1990Espenmoos, St. Gallen, Switzerland United States2–12–1Friendly
421 August 1990Praterstadion, Vienna, Austria Austria3–13–1Friendly
517 October 1990Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland Scotland1–21–2Euro 1992 qualifier
614 November 1990Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino San Marino3–04–0Euro 1992 qualifier
72 February 1991Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, United States United States1–01–0Friendly
8 12 March 1991Sportplatz Rheinau, Balzers, Switzerland Liechtenstein2–06–0Friendly
9 3–0
10 5–0
11 1 May 1991Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria Bulgaria1–23–2Euro 1992 qualifier
12 2–2
13 5 June 1991Espenmoos, St. Gallen, Switzerland San Marino1–07–0Euro 1992 qualifier
14 6–0
15 16 August 1992Kadrioru Stadium, Tallinn, Estonia Estonia3–06–01994 World Cup qualifier
16 4–0
17 9 September 1992Wankdorfstadion, Bern, Switzerland Scotland1–03–11994 World Cup qualifier
18 2–1
1917 March 1993Stade El Menzah, Tunis, Tunisia Tunisia1–01–0Friendly
2011 August 1993Ryavallen, Borås, Sweden Sweden1–12–1Friendly
2117 November 1993Hardturm, Zürich, Switzerland Estonia1–04–01994 World Cup qualifier
22 22 June 1994Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac, United States Romania3–14–11994 World Cup
23 4–1
2423 June 1995Wankdorfstadion, Bern, Switzerland Germany1–11–2Friendly
2516 August 1995Laugardalsvollur, Reykjavík, Iceland Iceland1–02–0Euro 1996 qualifier
2615 November 1995Wembley Stadium, London, England England1–01–3Friendly

Honours

VfB Stuttgart

References

  1. ↑ Adrian Knup 'manager' de l'équipe de Suisse de football‚ swissinfo.ch, 25 May 2007
  2. ↑ "Adrian Knup". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  3. ↑ Adrian Knup im Führungsgremium des FCB‚ nzz.ch, 22 June 2009
  4. ↑ Umsatzrekord und ein neuer Vizepräsident für den FC Basel‚ tagesanzeiger.ch, 30 April 2012
  5. ↑ Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "FC Basel - FC Baden 5:0 (1:0)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  6. ↑ "FC Sion - FC Basel 3:1 (3:0)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  7. ↑ Müller, Lukas (2010). "Rotblau: Peter Bernauer - Zuverlässig und kopfballstark im Abwehrzentrum". Rotblau (in German). FC Basel Marketing AG. ISSN 1660-0878.
  8. ↑ "FC Zürich - FC Basel 0:4 (0:2)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  9. ↑ "FC Basel - Grasshopper Club 3:3 (2:2)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  10. ↑ "FC Basel - Neuchâtel Xamax 1:3 (1:0". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  11. ↑ "FC Basel - FC Aarau 3:2 (0:0)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  12. ↑ Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "Adrian Knup - FCB-Statistik". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  13. ↑ (fest/Si) (30 April 2012). "Der FC Basel mit einem neuen Umsatzrekord". fussball.ch. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  14. ↑ Adrian Knup im Führungsgremium des FCB‚ nzz.ch, 22 June 2009
  15. ↑ "Deutscher Supercup, 1992, Finale". dfb.de. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
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