1954 World Cup star dies
Former Swiss national team captain Robert Ballaman died on September 5 after a long illness, the Swiss Football Association reported on Tuesday. He was 85.
Ballaman got two goals in the highest-scoring match ever at a World Cup tournament, among his 18 goals in 50 appearances for Switzerland from 1948-61.
Host nation Switzerland lost 7-5 to Austria in a 1954 quarterfinals match in Lausanne that was played in searing temperatures. Ballaman opened the scoring with a powerful long-range shot and the Swiss led 3-0 after 19 minutes before fading in the heat.
He captained his country for the next seven years.
Ballaman won the Swiss championship three times, with Biel in 1947 and Grasshoppers Zurich in 1952 and 1956.
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