Television The "Schnurri of the nation" celebrates his 75th birthday
Beni Thurnheer celebrates his 75th birthday today, Thursday. The former sports presenter and show host only reluctantly bears the title "Schnurri of the nation".
11.07.2024, 09:01
SDA
A big birthday celebration is not planned, as Thurnheer said when asked by Keystone-SDA. "I'm going to have dinner with my family in a restaurant in Winterthur and toast my birthday". Otherwise, he will enjoy the day without festivities or appointments.
In his television career, he has commentated on hundreds of football matches. Over the last few days, he has watched the Swiss national football team's matches at the European Championships in Germany with rapt attention. "It's the best national team of all time," Thurnheer is convinced.
However, he is not drawn back to the microphone. As a commentator, he says, you don't have to say what everyone sees anyway, but provide additional information. And that requires a lot of preparation. "At the microphone, I'd be like a pistol without ammunition," says Thurnheer.
Sayings by the meter
Thurnheer, also known as "Beni National", was never at a loss for ammunition in the form of slogans during his time on Swiss television. "In a herd of black sheep, the white sheep is the black sheep," he once said, alluding to Trinidad & Tobago's only white footballer.
A quote from the 1994 World Cup remains legendary: when the USA were allowed to take a free kick in the penalty area against Switzerland, Thurnheer confidently said "there's no one like Bregy", alluding to the Swiss free kick specialist. The latter had scored a goal shortly before. Eric Wynalda put paid to Thurnheer's prophecy with a wonderful goal. Wynalda and Bregy remained the only scorers of the game.
He didn't want to be the "Schnurri" at all
However, he was never really happy with the title of "Schnurri of the nation", as he recently told the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. The term "Schnurri" has negative connotations. What's more, studies show that he was not the commentator who talked the most. Nevertheless, Thurnheer self-deprecatingly gave one of his books the title "Talking is silver after all".
Thurnheer, who lives in Seuzach ZH, began his career in 1973 as a sports reporter for Radio DRS. He first appeared on television in 1975 as the presenter of the program "Sportkalender". Over the following decades, he presented a large number of sports programs and commented on numerous sporting events, especially ice hockey and football. This was later followed by the quiz show "Tell-Star", which ran on Monday evenings from 1980 to 1991, and the Saturday evening show "Benissimo", which was named after him.
In June 2015, the then 65-year-old hosted his last "Sportpanorama", but continued to work a reduced schedule. He was on air for the last time at the end of 2018 with a match report. In October 2022, he returned to the TV screen on Saturday evenings for a one-off comeback; the self-confessed FC Winterthur fan hosted his loss show "Benissimo" to mark its 30th anniversary.
