20 years ago, ex-national football star Manfred “Mani” Braschler died

She guesses right away. When Sandra Braschler entered her house in Goldach in St. Gallen on the evening of July 31, 2002, she sensed that something was strange. Two hours earlier she had spoken to Mani on the phone. Everything seemed to be the same as always. But now that she opens the door and it starts raining outside at the same time, she feels queasy. She calls for him, but gets no answer. So she walks over to the garage where her husband often works. She comes around the corner in quick steps. And then she sees him dangling from the rope right in front of her. On the ground a small, overturned ladder.

Manfred Braschler, whom everyone just called Mani, hung himself that Wednesday at the age of just 43. The life of the former sunny boy of Swiss football ends tragically. The question of why torments relatives and friends to this day.

Willi Fink, his childhood friend, says: “He never showed us his sensitive side. He was always a cool sock at first glance.”

Paul Friberg, his teammate at St. Gallen and Chur, says: “We lost touch following our careers. When we met once more years later, I thought to myself: This isn’t the Mani from before!”

Sonja Hansl-Braschler, his eldest sister, says: “To this day we don’t know why he did it. Also because he never really opened up to us. You can’t look inside a person.”

Mario Pfomann, his friend, says: “He was such a good-hearted person, but unfortunately he was also very unstable.”

Sandra Braschler, the widow, says: «Why did he do that? Why did he leave us all alone?”

Questions to which there are still no answers today, exactly 20 years following his death. Blick spoke to numerous companions. Everyone who spoke to us reacted the same: When asked regarding Mani, her eyes lit up. They raved regarding his football skills, regarding his seemingly sunny disposition, regarding his jokes and pranks.

But there was also the other side: we are talking regarding money worries, alcohol problems and the hole he fell into when the spotlight of the football business turned away from him and normal, unspectacular everyday life, life followingwards, began.

As a Swiss in the Austria national team

Willi Fink is someone who has known Mani Braschler since childhood. The two grow up in the Tyrolean town of Imst on the same street. They go to school together. They play together for SC Imst. “The mani has always been a funny button,” says Fink, “it was fun for everyone. When we were 14, our goal was always to climb the top of the Brennbichler church. Without anyone catching us. It was pretty high and it took a lot of courage, but we both made it. And of course we ‘arrested’ the first girls together at that time. Many women were attracted to the Mani with his straw-blonde hair.”

It quickly becomes clear: Braschler is a great football talent, a talent of the century for a small town like Imst. He therefore changes to SSW Innsbruck. The left wing, which has grown small, is also busy scoring goals in the Bundesliga. In 1978 he was called up for the B-Nati in Austria and scored the golden goal once morest Portugal. What nobody knew at the time: Braschler is not Austrian on paper, but only has a Swiss passport. His grandfather had emigrated to Tyrol following the First World War.

Innsbruck also uses the local Braschler as a “national”. At that time, only three legionnaires were allowed to be deployed at the same time. But the Tyroleans regularly appear with three foreigners plus Braschler. Because some clubs protest, Braschler becomes a case for the courts. In the end, this was not granted, but the name Manfred Braschler became well known beyond the national borders.

He made the St. Gallen president go wild

In 1982 FC St. Gallen signed Braschler. At CHF 400,000, he was the most expensive newcomer in club history at the time. His monthly salary: a whopping 15,000 francs. At FCSG he meets right wing Paul Friberg. “I can still remember well when he was introduced to us,” says the Graubünden native. “We just had a training session at Espenmoos. Then it was said that a newcomer would come from Innsbruck. Suddenly he appeared, this blond angel with his big smile. He just said: ‘Servus, I’m the mani.'”

Friberg still raves regarding Braschler’s football skills. “He was an excellent dribbling artist. Incredibly agile, fast and very dangerous. » And he was up for any joke. “Official team photos were always taken at the beginning of the season. One year he and Mario Moscatelli were sitting next to each other. They put their hands on each other’s thighs for fun. The bosses only noticed this following the posters and cards had already been printed. Our President Colonel Schärli then really raged.”

With his strong performances and goals, Braschler also found his way into the national team. And in the Swiss. He will play a total of 21 times for the national team. There he also met Roger Berbig. The GC goalie legend and Braschler always had a bet going on followingwards, remembers Friberg. «When we met St. Gallen at GC, we both brought a carton of cigarettes from the other’s favorite brand. Whoever lost the game had to hand it over to the other person followingwards.”

“Mani fought for me”

After seven years in St. Gallen, Braschler switched to FC Chur in Nati B in 1989. Friberg was his teammate there too. Was his life already out of joint? “I don’t know,” says Friberg, “during that time he always went straight home following games and training.”

In 1991 Braschler finally ended his career as a professional and from then on played in amateur football at FC Romanshorn, first with the active players and later also with the seniors. There he becomes friends with striker Mario Pfomann and Honorary President Hans Sidler.

Pfomann: «Of course it was great for us to play with such a caliber. Mani never posed as a star, he was one of us and gave it his all in every game. Once we both had a broken rib. When I was invited to his place for breakfast on the day of the game, they both had a 1,000 Ponstan next to the knife. We threw it in and played followingwards. They would have had to cut off his leg so he wouldn’t have run aground.”

A friendship quickly develops between Braschler and Pfomann. During the half-time breaks, people smoke together on the toilet, and they help each other in their private and professional lives. «Mani was very generous. Maybe too generous. He would have given everyone their last shirt.”

The financial problems, they increase over time. Mostly because Braschler’s first wife, with whom he has a son, spent his money lavishly. Sidler therefore tries to support him. See that his cleaning institute gets going, does his bookkeeping, helps him find an apartment and that he gets his debts under control.

In 1995 Braschler met Sandra. She has three children from a previous relationship. In 2001 the couple married. “Mani was my great love and I was his,” says Sandra today. “He was someone who fought for me. Of course I liked that.”

They had to get him off the tracks

But the calamity takes its course. Alcohol problems, financial worries, possibly also gambling addiction and love affairs outside of marriage. Apparently Braschler tried several times to take his own life. Mario Pfomann: «Once we had to get him off the rails. And another time he came to the game with his arms tied because he had previously cut his wrists. We asked him why, but he was never able or willing to give us an answer.”

Sandra Braschler says: “He was the center of attention for years. But then suddenly he wasn’t anybody anymore and had to clean up other people’s dirt. That really bothered him.”

On Wednesday evening, July 31, 2002, he apparently sees no way out and ends his life. He leaves no suicide note. His childhood friend Willi Fink found out regarding it while on vacation in Styria. “I remember it as clearly as if it were yesterday. I was sitting in a café when I was told of his death on the phone.”

Braschler’s sister Sonja is with her parents when the phone rings. “I can still hear Mom’s scream when she found out that Mani had taken his own life.” Her voice falters, tears come.

Mario Pfomann: «I was on vacation in Italy when I found out regarding it. It was like being stabbed in the back with a knife.”

“He lay there like he was just sleeping”

When his sister Sonja Hansl-Braschler thinks regarding her Mani today, one image comes to mind above all: the image of the funeral in the parish church of St. Mauritius in Goldach. “I actually didn’t want to look at him anymore because I wanted to remember him the way I knew him: as a funny family man. But then my husband told me he was lying there peacefully and that I should have a look at him so that I might have my peace followingwards.” Sonja listens to her husband. “Luckily. He lay there like he was just sleeping. That was good for me.”

After his death, his widow Sandra throws herself into the work, and to this day she continues to run the cleaning institute in his name. And she carries an anger inside her. Also on Mani. “I was angry because he left me with three teenage children, animals and the cleaning business. He’d always told me he wished he’d met me earlier, and he’d always treated my three children like his own. That’s why I often asked myself at the beginning: why did he leave us alone then?”

Anger has now given way to sadness. “Before, because of all the work, I didn’t have the time to really mourn. That only came in the last few years.”

The question of why also occupies his sister Sonja to this day. ‘He must have known. Maybe we’ll find out when we’re up there too.”

Find help here

• The offered hand, telephone 143 and online consultation, confidentiality; anonymous and free of charge, www.143.ch
• Klartext (point of contact for questions regarding suicide): first consultation free of charge; 079 450 91 68
• GP or psychiatrist

• The offered hand, telephone 143 and online consultation, confidentiality; anonymous and free of charge, www.143.ch
• Klartext (point of contact for questions regarding suicide): first consultation free of charge; 079 450 91 68
• GP or psychiatrist

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