Basically, people in Austria live with the feeling of overconfidence that they are the best country in the world; you don’t have to remind the population of that every day. But every now and then it does the soul of a country a lot of good when a fact like this is once again officially documented, as was the case on Thursday shortly before ten in the morning. The final croissants of the morning were just being served in the coffee houses, and the Austrian Football Association issued a press release with the butter and apricot jam with the first sentence proclaimed: “Ralf Rangnick has decided!”
No ordinary point was enough, an exclamation point was needed to underline it: It’s not entirely normal for a German coach (!) to cancel (!) from the largest German football club so that he forgoes the chance of one’s unfulfilled dream To have the Bundesliga championship (!), just to continue training the national team in Austria (!). Rangnick has made a decision – and in doing so has, in the side effect, ennobled an entire country that had just found its way in the pessimism of convenience.
This discipline is also mastered in Austria. In the last few days, numerous supporters were questioned in front of football stadiums in television interviews, and there was agreement: He should please stay, Rangnick, whose name is no longer mispronounced (“Ragnick”/”Ramnick”) between Bregenz and the Waldviertel. But of course he will probably, understandably, go to Bayern; only the greatest optimists still believe he will stay.
However, these also included ÖFB President Klaus Mitterdorfer and sports director Peter Schöttel, who navigated the association through the debates of the past two weeks so calmly and matter-of-factly that one could almost recommend that FC Bayern buy this duo out of their contracts and not the coach . “We were always very confident,” said Mitterdorfer in the statement, after making it clear for days that he would let Rangnick make a decision in peace – but that he had not yet had any contact with FC Bayern. The association also appeared unimpressed by the thesis, which had since been read in the German tabloid press, that the association would accommodate Christoph Freund – once the mediator between ÖFB and Rangnick in spring 2022.
Mitterdorfer, Schöttel and of course Rangnick are the biggest winners in the case
After all, they knew about the comfort package that was being presented to the coach in Austria: It consisted of an attractive football team, a pleasant lifestyle and, above all, a remarkable creative ability that he would never have in Munich. On Tuesday, Rangnick met with Vice Chancellor and Sports Minister Werner Kogler to discuss social policy and the construction of a new national stadium. Implementing such concerns will now be even easier.
Mitterdorfer, Schöttel and of course Rangnick himself are now the biggest winners in the case. Rarely has a team boss received more enthusiasm and affection from the public before a tournament. Alone: No matter how big the exclamation points are, how disbelieving and joyful the media is now celebrating on the front pages (“YES!”, she wrote Crown), as obvious as the Fendrich quotes are (“I stand by you/in light and shadow/at all times!”) – the Austro soul caretaker Rangnick can only trigger lasting megalomania from mid-June onwards.