Fragments from the heyday: The Servette Desire captures us again

Today, Servette has been waiting for a title for more than twenty years, since winning the cup in 2001 and the last championship in 1999. In the past, they were sometimes greeted. 1978/79 was a season of four titles! Before the competition started in the summer, Servette triumphed in the French-Swiss Alpine Cup against Nice, Strasbourg and in the final against rival Lausanne.

The following spring, the team around Umberto Barberis, Hansjörg “Joko” Pfister, Piet Hamberg, goalkeeper Karl Engel and coach Peter Pazmandy won the League Cup in a penalty shootout against Basel. Then the championship decided the decision. And to top it all off, the cup was won on June 20, 1979 in the repeat final match in Wankdorf against YB.

Years later: “Yesterday, Servette President Carlo Lavizzari’s phone rang in Geneva. “Mr. President, I’m coming to Geneva!” Rummenigge stated.” This episode is from September 9, 1987. The world star from Bayern Munich joined Inter Milan after three years.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (now 68) moved into a villa in Vésenaz on Lake Geneva and shone on the Swiss fields in the legendary jersey with sponsor Placette. In 1989 he became top scorer in the then National League A with 24 goals, ahead of Kubilay Türkyilmaz and Dario Zuffi (both 19), after which he ended his career and returned to Munich. In addition to him, Servette also attracted stars such as the later record transfer Sonny Anderson (in 1994 for 8 million francs from Servette to Monaco, an incredible amount at the time) and John Eriksen.

How was that possible? The “Schweizer Illustrierte” wrote about the Servette leadership on June 4, 1979: “And so almost everyone who has a reputation in Geneva is included in the enlarged committee. Star lawyers, major restaurateurs, major landowners, men on a first-name basis with the super-rich, Rolls-Royce and Ferrari drivers. So it was relatively easy for Cohannier (president who began to manage the club according to commercial principles, editor’s note) to buy more than a dozen Swiss footballers since 1975: Engel, Kudi Müller, Bizzini, Valentini, Trinchero, Pfister, Peterhans , Elijah .” And so on.

Despite the dominance of Basel and Zurich in the 1960s and 1970s, Servette and GC were still the most successful clubs in Switzerland. This rivalry reached its peak in the early 1980s, culminating in some explosive matches.

Here the Servette, financed by the Geneva Haute Société, with brilliant players such as Barberis, Lucien Favre or Michel Decastel, there the noble club GC, supported by the financial institutions of Zurich, with Roger Berbig, Heinz Hermann and Raimondo Ponte. The players from both teams also formed the majority of the national team. And quite a few played for both clubs: “Joko” Pfister, Heinz Hermann, Alain Geiger, Andy Egli, Marco Schällibaum and Blick expert Kubilay Türkyilmaz.

The successes of the late 70s and early 80s ensured that the fan base also grew on the other side of the Röstigraben. German-speaking Swiss regularly traveled to the home games at the Stade des Charmilles. Because trains no longer ran to Eastern Switzerland after evening matches, one or two fans stayed overnight in the stadium after consultation with club officials.

After an after-work beer in the city, the gatekeeper let the late-night revelers back in so they could lie down on a beach towel on the wooden benches at the top of the main stand before heading home in the morning.

Central Swiss Daniel Reichmuth maintains a huge archive in Ibach SZ with previous Servette jerseys, lists of players with legendary status and collected stories, which he has made available to Grenat supporters for decades on his website “Super-Servette”.

John Appenzeller is chairman of the fan group “Deutschweiz 86”, which dates back to its heyday and can still be found in the main stand of the Stade de Genève. Stars like Sinval, Eriksen and Hasler used to visit the fan bus. The ‘Maroons’ also remain true to the curve, an even larger group from German-speaking Switzerland.

With Appenzeller, as with so many others, it was the color, the special garnet red, chestnut red, burgundy red, that made him a lover as a four-year-old. He has had a season ticket continuously since 1988. When Blick reaches him, he has just completed the long drive home from Pilsen. Despite a bitter elimination in the 16th round of the Conference League, he praised Servette’s solid performance. Of course, his grenade loyalty remains.