Roland Schönenberger

Roland Schönenberger (born 10 October 1955) is a Swiss former footballer who played for FC Basel.

He played as a forward.

Schönenberger played his youth football with local club FC Wangen bei Olten.

He joined Basel's first team under team manager Helmut Benthaus in their 1974–75 season.

After two games in the Cup of the Alps and one in the Swiss League Cup, he made his domestic league debut for his new club in the home game at the St. Jakob Stadium on 17 August 1974 as Basel drew 2–2 draw with Xamax in the first game of the season.

He scored his first goal for the club on 19 October that year as Basel won 3–0 at home to Vevey-Sports.

In his first season, Basel ended the domestic league in fourth position, he played 19 league games scoring six goals.

He played two Swiss Cup games; Basel won the Cup but Schönenberger did not figure in the final line up.

Between 1974 and 1979 Schönenberger played 195 games for Basel and scored 80 goals; 110 games were in the Nationalliga A, 15 in the League Cup, 9 in the Swiss Cup, 2 in the European Cup, 1 in the UEFA Cup, 2 in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, 14 in the Cup of the Alps and 42 were friendlies.

Basel finished the 1975–76 Nationalliga A in third position with 34 points, 10 points behind FC Zürich.

Of the 26 games, 13 were won, 8 drawn, 5 lost, with 59 goals and 38 conceded.

Schönenberger played in 24 matches, scored 10 goals, and was the team's top scorer.

In the 1975–76 European Cup Winners' Cup he played both games as Basel were knocked out of the competition by Atlético Madrid.

In the first leg he scored the opening goal in the third minute, but the team lost 2–1.

For Schönenberger the 1976–77 Nationalliga A was a very successful season.

The league format was changed.

Instead of 14 teams playing a single round robin, it now was reduced to 12 teams with a qualifying phase and a championship round within the top six teams.

This meant no longer 26 games, but now 22 plus 10.

Schönenberger did not play much in the first part of the season, but returned to playing as the winter ended.

In the qualifying phase Basel obtained 33 points and were just two points behind Servette.

They managed to close the gap in the championship round and because both teams were level on points the championship was decided in a play-off match.

This match was held on 26 June 1977.

Basel's goals were scored by Mundschin and von Wartburg as they won 2–1 and became Swiss champions.

In the league Schönenberger only played 11 matches scoring three goals.

During Basel's 1977–78 season Schönenberger played 30 league games and netted 16 times.

He was the team's top scorer and the team finished the championship in third position.

They reached the semi-finals of both the national cup competitions but lost both.

In the League Cup, Schönenberger played all four games and scored four goals.

In the Swiss Cup, he played three games and also scored four goals.

In the cup match on 12 October 1977 in the Letzigrund against Zürich Schönenberger scored a hat-trick as Basel won 3–1.

In their 1978–79 season Basel finished the qualification round in fourth position and after the final round they slipped to sixth position.

Schönenberger played 26 league games and scored six times.

In the qualification round match on 16 September 1978 against Xamax, he scored four goals as Basel won 5–2.

However Detlev Lauscher became the team's top scorer with 14 goals.

In the round of 32 in the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn away at lower tier FC Glattbrugg.

Schönenberger scored a hat-trick within 23 minutes in the second half of the game as Basel won 7–0.

In the League Cup Basel advanced to the final which was played on St. Jakob Stadium on 1 May 1979.

Although their opponents, Servette, took an early two goal lead, Schönenberger scored twice and the game went into extra time.

After 120 minutes the score remained 2–2 and it required a penalty shootout.

Schönenberger missed with his attempt and Servette won the Cup.