| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Daniel Hug | ||
| Date of birth | (1884-09-19)19 September 1884 | ||
| Place of birth | Basel, Switzerland | ||
| Date of death | 28 November 1918(1918-11-28) (aged 34) | ||
| Place of death | Trieste, Italy | ||
| Position(s) | defender,midfielder | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1899–1908 | FC Basel | 56 | (8) |
| 1908–1910 | Genoa | ||
| International career | |||
| 1908 | Switzerland | 2 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1909–1910 | Genoa | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Daniel Hug (17 September 1884 – 28 November 1918) was aSwissinternationalfootballer who played forFC Basel andGenoa C.F.C. He played mainly in the position asdefender, but also asmidfielder.
In his early years Hug successfully played football forFC Basel and was a member of theSwiss national team.FC Basel was founded on 15 November 1893 and Hug joined Basel's first team some five years later, for their1899–1900 season. FC Basel did not participate in the second edition of the Swiss championship this season. Hug played his first game for the club in the home game in theLandhof on 4 February 1900 as Basel won 3–1 against FC Fortuna Basel.[1] Hug played in nine of the team's ten friendly games in their spring season.
The following season Basel did, however, compete in the1900–01 Swiss Serie A and Hug played in eight of the ten league games.Basel's 1900–01 season was a bad season, they ended the group stage in the league in fifth position out of six clubs.[2] A curiosity in this season was the away game on 3 March 1901. This was an away game againstGrasshopper Club and it ended in a 3–13 defeat. The reasons for this high defeat can be explained with the fact that one of the players missed the train and that the team played with a number of players from their reserve team. Nevertheless, to date this remains the teams’ highest and biggest defeat in the club’s history.[3]
Hug scored his first league goal for his club on 2 March 1902 in the home game as Basel won 4–2 againstYoung Boys.[4] During the following seasons Hug played regularly with the team.
In their1906–07 season Basel played the first four games away from home. The team lost the two consecutive away games against Young Boys and Old Boys both 3–4. These were the only two games that Hug missed in the entire season. However, the team winning the next four consecutive games they climbed to the top of the table. As it came to the last group game of the season, at home the return match against theOld Boys, Basel were leading the table two points ahead of their direct opponents. However in this last match, despite a two-goal lead, the goals being scored by Dr.Siegfried Pfeiffer andMax Senn, their local rivals turned the game and won three goals to two.[5] Subsequently it came to a play-off to see who would advance to the finals. The play-off match was interrupted in the 50th minute due to a storm and following the restart it ended in a 1–1 draw. Thus, it required a reply one week later and this was also drawn 1–1. They played 2x 10 minutes extra time, but neither team scored. Therefore, both teams agreed to play a further 15 minutes, but again neither team scored. Another week later it then came to a second replay which Basel decided quite clearly with 4–1 for themselves. Basel advanced to the finals for the first time in their history. The finals were played as a round robin tournament. In the first match they were beaten 1–5 by west group winnersServette and in the second 2–3 byYoung Fellows Zürich. Servette won the deciding match and became Swiss champions for the first time in their club's history.[6]
During their1907–08 season, Hug was team captain for the third year in succession. He was Basel's most prominent and their largest player and as captain he led the team trainings and was responsible for the line-ups. At the end of the season Hug transferred to Italy, to play professionally forGenoa C.F.C. in the Italian football championship.[7]
Between the years 1899 and 1908 Hug played a total of 92 games (56 in the domestic league, 36 friendly games) forBasel scoring a total of 11 goals.[note Scorers 1][8]
In 1908 he moved to Italy to play forGenoa. In theItalian Football Championship 1908 theFIGC agreed to Federal Gymnastics protests forbidding the use of foreign players. Since Genoa's birth they had always had a strong English contingent. They disagreed, as did several other prominent clubs such asMilan,Torino and Firenze; and thus they withdrew from official FIGC competitions that year. The following season the federation reversed the decision and Genoa was rebuilt with players such asLuigi Ferraris[9] and others fromSwitzerland such as Hug.
Together with goalkeeperPaul Hofer, the playersAlphonse Schorpp,Eugen Strauss,Siegfried Pfeiffer,Ernst-Alfred Thalmann undEmil Hasler, Hug was one of many earlySwiss national team players who came from the Basel team. Hug wore the Swiss national team shirt twice. His first call up was the friendly match between Switzerland andFrance on 8 March 1908 in Geneva, which the Swiss lost 1–2.[10] The second call was againstGermany, the game played on 5 April 1908. Hugs Basel team matePfeiffer scored two goals in the legendary 5–3 victory over Germany at theLandhof inBasel.[11][12] After his move to Italy he was never called up again.