Franz Burgmeier

Vaduz

Burgmeier started out as a youth at Triesen before moving to Vaduz in 2000. Although based in his home country, like all Liechtenstein clubs Vaduz played league football in Switzerland—at the time in the third tier—but also competed in the Liechtenstein Football Cup. In Burgmeier's first season the team won promotion to the Challenge League and won the Liechtenstein Cup with a 9–0 defeat against Ruggell in the final. He scored his first goal at the higher level on 31 July 2001, in a postponed game from the first round of the season, which finished in a 4–1 victory against Thun. However, Vaduz finished in 11th place in the Fall Season, before results improved and they finished in second place in the Final Table, avoiding being relegated. The team also successfully defended their Liechtenstein Cup defeating USV Eschen/Mauren 6–1 in the final. Vaduz's success in their nation's cup ensured they gained access to the UEFA Cup, and in August 2002, Burgmeier scored his first European goal during a 1–1 with Livingston, the Scottish side's first game in Europe. In the second leg, Vaduz had a late goal disallowed during a 0–0, and so they went out in the qualifying round for the third successive year, losing on the away goals rule. Vaduz topped the Fall Season table that season, but failed to win promotion to the Swiss Super League after finishing fourth in the Final League. Their failure was offset with another victory in the Liechtenstein Cup, this time defeating…

Burgmeier is a Liechtenstein international who made his debut in a 2002 World Cup qualifier against Spain on 5 September 2001. It was the penultimate game of the side's qualifying campaign, in which they lost all eight games without scoring a goal. Despite starting the qualifying round for 2004 European Championships with a 1–1 draw with Macedonia, Liechtenstein lost their remaining games to finish bottom of their group. Burgmeier featured in seven of the qualification matches. Burgmeier scored his first international goal in April 2003 in a friendly against Saudi Arabia to give Liechtenstein a 1–0 victory. On 10 October 2004, he scored his first competitive international goal as he helped Liechtenstein to record their first point in World Cup qualification matches. He and Thomas Beck scored Liechtenstein's goals in a 2–2 with Portugal at the Rheinpark Stadion. Burgmeier describes the draw as the "biggest moment of my career". Three days later, Burgmeier scored two more goals as Liechtenstein earned their first World Cup win with a 4–0 victory against Luxembourg. They followed it up with a 0–0 draw against Slovakia and another victory over Luxembourg, to finish the qualifying campaign with eight points from their 12 matches. Burgmeier played in nine games. Liechtenstein won another two games in their following qualifying campaign—for the 2008 European Championships. They had started with four defeats, in the last of which Burgmeier scored a consolation goal in a 4–1 win for…

Club

As of 28 September 2015

International

Scores and results list Liechtenstein's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Burgmeier Template goal.

Burgmeier was born in Triesen, Liechtenstein, a small town with a population of 4,500, close to the border with Switzerland. He is the younger son of Heinz and Elsbeth, following Patrick Burgmeier, who played football for Vaduz and USV Eschen/Mauren. From a young age, Franz played both football and skied. He played for the Liechtenstein youth team in Swiss competitions from ages 11 to 16, winning the championship when he was 13. However, at 16, a knee injury, which he suffered while skiing, nearly ended his football career and prompted him to stop the former sport. Burgmeier is married to Monika. She also plays football, as a full back, for FC Triesen, and also is a coach at the youth level for Liechtenstein's women.