Switzerland's first female goalscorer

“Do you remember when we spent the night in a bomb shelter before the game against France?” Cathy Moser asks her old friend and fellow former international Margrit Näf. The two met in late June in a café in Thun, where native Vaudois Moser has lived for the last 25 years. She drinks a glass of sparkling mineral water, as it's too hot for coffee. She recalls how they were allowed to eat in the staff canteen of sponsor Sandoz before the match.

That was in Basel in 1972, shortly before the first official international game of the women's national squad. Moser scored Switzerland's very first goal in the game – and then added a second shortly afterwards. The game ended in a 2:2 draw. The current European Championships bring the memories flooding back. “This tournament in Switzerland is a celebration for us,” Moser says. She will watch a total of 13 matches in the stadium together with her old friends. At one of the games—Belgium versus Italy—Moser will even meet her former colleagues from Italy. As an 18-year-old, she played for Gomma Gomma Milano, named after the club's sponsor, a foam manufacturer. She commuted between Yverdon and Milan for weekend matches. After all, she had yet to finish her gardening apprenticeship. At the time, it took her more than six hours by train in each direction.    

Better with the girl than against her

Luckily, her apprenticeship mentor at Migros was also a football fan. After a company outing, he challenged his charges to a game of football. He was impressed by how well Moser played. That's hardly surprising: as a child, she had kicked a ball around every moment she got; the only girl among lots of boys. They usually played on the village square in Suchy or on the street, but never on grass. Once the sides had been picked, the boys would argue over who would get the girl.

Moser's mentor told her that Migros in Yverdon had a women's team which she should sign up for. And that's exactly what Moser did the following Saturday – and was part of the squad from the very next day. “About half of the women worked at Migros, most of them as sales assistants,” she recalls. Back then, it wasn't unusual for companies to field their own football team. In Neuchâtel, for example, there was a women's team from the tobacco company Brunette.  

Her first time by the sea

Moser went to Italy thanks to a tip from her colleague Madeleine Boll, who had been playing in Milan for some time. Her club was looking for a striker. So one day, an entire delegation travelled from Milan to Yverdon. Club president Valeria Rocchi, a former long-jumper, hired Moser straight off the pitch. Although she was only supposed to go there for a few games, she ended up playing in the Italian league for almost five years. The per-game wages and occasional bonuses for winning were just enough to cover her travelling expenses. Nevertheless Moser has fond memories of the time, which she found exhausting, but exciting. “I travelled a lot and saw the sea for the very first time,” she says.

It wasn't long before Moser was picked for the Swiss national squad. She remembers the first unofficial match well – they played against Austria in 1970, when the women were kitted out in the mustard-yellow kit of the junior men's side. “The tops were far too big for us, so we had to somehow cram them into our shorts,” she says. “It was terrible!” Despite this, the atmosphere on the Breite in Schaffhausen was fantastic. Music was playing "And everywhere people were shouting 'Hopp Schwiiz!' ('Go Switzerland!')”.

For this year's European Championships, she has bought the official top for the first time. In the past, she and her friends used to design their own fan T-shirts, complete with a Swiss cross and their name. Everything in women's football has become more professional – even the fan merchandise.