Crime story about Marco van Basten of FC Wil: How a Blick reporter once tracked down the bank robber and footballer Hans G

Flashback. In the autumn of 1992, FC Wil was still an insignificant NLB club. Only the season before he was surprisingly promoted to the second highest division. Also thanks to striker Hans G., who was once contracted by the amateur club FC Münchwilen. Christian Gross, Wil’s young coach at the time, praised G. during those months: “He is the Marco van Basten of Eastern Switzerland. An exemplary athlete, enthusiastic and fanatical footballer.”

But on December 14, 1992, suddenly nothing is as it once was. G. stays away from training without an excuse. And at Raiffeisenbank Münchwilen, where the 30-year-old works as chief cashier, there is a deficit of around one million Swiss francs. A short time later, rumors increased that G. had fled to Thailand with the money, because his Opel Calibra was discovered at Kloten Airport and G. was said to have been seen in a bar in the seaside resort of Patong on the island of Phuket.

Christian Gross flies to Thailand

For Christian Gross the matter is clear: he wants to fly immediately to Thailand to look for his protégé. ‘I just want to talk to him again. “I am almost convinced that a solution can be found that will prevent him from ruining the rest of his life with this,” the police officer’s son told Blick at the time. On December 24, Gross and his then-wife Mona actually boarded a plane to Thailand. But the search ends without success. G. remains missing.

And it will remain that way for the next almost three and a half years. Until May 1996, Blick reporter Marcel Allemann went on holiday to Phuket with his then girlfriend. “I’ve always been interested in G.’s story,” Allemann recalls, “so I thought I’d ask around in the Swiss bars. Someone then told me that G. had once been here, but he didn’t know where he was now.”

Like Gross three and a half years earlier, Allemann also wants to give up the search soon, “but one evening we went to Schweizer’s bar again. He was completely upset and said, ‘I’m tired of him, this miser. Now I’m going to expose him. Tomorrow I’ll show you everything.”

Suddenly G. is gone

The next day, the bar owner actually leads Allemann to G’s bungalow. He shows him his beloved blue mountain bike and the spot on Patong Beach where he always hangs out. In the middle of all the tourists. Allemann learns that G. has obtained a false passport with the name “Peter Müller”. That after his escape he first hid in the island’s capital, Phuket Town. That he bought a property from a friend for 50,000 francs, paid for with his loot. But otherwise he leads a modest life.

Allemann photographs everything in Patong. Contact the editors in Zurich. Send the films home by express delivery. Now he has no choice but to wait until all the material finally arrives in Switzerland. In the meantime, Allemann visits the bungalow and the beach every day to see if everything is still as it was. «Once when I went out for dinner with my girlfriend, G. happened to walk past me and looked at me intently. That was a strange feeling.”

On May 28, 1996, the time finally came and the story was published: “Blick tracked down bank robbers.” That same day, the Thurgau cantonal police contacted Allemann and wanted to know where G. was currently staying. A day later, the Blick edition also appears in Patong. When Allemann drives back to the bungalow in the evening, it is suddenly empty. And the mountain bike is gone too. The matter is clear: G. saw the story and charged. The case is closed for Allemann.

“I’m glad it’s all over”

But not for G. His escape ends on January 20, 1997. On that day he is arrested at the President Inn Hotel in Pattaya and later extradited to Switzerland. ‘I’m glad it’s all over. I no longer felt comfortable here,” he told Blick at the time, promising: “I will be accountable for what I did.”

He will have the opportunity to do so later in court. This is why G. once won money in the lottery, but gambled it away in the casino in Konstanz. He then went back to gambling with the bank’s money – officially it was 825,000 francs. As fear grew that the bank would discover the shortages, he decided to flee. But when there were problems with his visa in Thailand and he ran out of money to continue bribing the authorities, his escape came to an end.

The Thurgau High Court shows no mercy to G. and sentenced him to 29 months in prison in October 1999 for multiple embezzlement, forgery of IDs and documents.

What is his life like today? G. himself no longer wants to talk about it with Blick, but an acquaintance says that he is doing well. A Swiss emigrant Marcel Allemann once explained why G. took the wrong path at the time: “G. told me that he simply had no interest in this life in Switzerland anymore. Sitting on the couch crippled from morning to evening and playing football in the evening. It was just too much for him.”

* Name of the editor known