Peter Schöttel only spoke to ORF reporter Rainer Pariasek, but he took the opportunity to reach the right target group at the same time. “First of all, good evening to the studio and good evening home,” said the sports director of the Austrian Football Association, connected from an empty Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna. In doing so, he addressed the football nation on the sofa directly, to whom he had to justify himself. Because Peter Schöttel is the man who has to decide in the coming weeks which coach can try to satisfy Austria in the future – which is an almost impossible task.
Missed the World Cup, 34th place in the world rankings and hardly any spectators, that is the sad balance sheet at the end of the four and a half year era of national coach Franco Foda. 6,600 spectators found their way to the Vienna Prater on Tuesday – just as the national team in Vienna scraped the negative attendance record from 1987. The team and football are apparently only of interest to very few – if so, then the drama off the field is still interesting. And at least that’s where Austrian football has shown its most entertaining side in the past few days.
To his credit, Schöttel even tried to initiate a serious search for a new coach. On Tuesday he told ORF about many planned trips and said: “We will not stop searching at the national border.” However, the news of the Schöttel tour immediately made people sit up and take notice – if not only Mödling and Graz were to be toured, but also nearer and further afield, there would be interesting options on the market.
Reports of a cancellation by Niko Kovac could be read and were denied by Schöttel, Austrian Gerhard Struber, who works there as a trainer at Red Bull, contacted New York, but canceled prophylactically before anyone could even book a flight with the ÖFB . the Crown newspaper then suggested Zinedine Zidane.
On the search from Mödling to New York: Austria’s sports director Peter Schöttel has to find a new national football coach.
(Photo: Armin Rauthner/Gepa/Imago)
The multiple Champions League winner would certainly be a candidate who would meet the criteria mentioned by Schöttel: “Professional competence and social competence are logical. A team boss has to get the maximum out of the short time he has available. And he has to can deal with criticism,” said the 55-year-old default. Only the budget for French world coaches should hardly be enough, you would have to lure Zidane to the coaching chair in the Happel Stadium with an extra load of punch donuts, which Schöttel is obviously not above himself.
Traditional in the race: Andreas Herzog
In addition to the prospect of a talented squad, the post of Austrian national coach also offers other advantages: “For more experienced coaches who are already working in the national team area and no longer want to have the daily stress, we also have a very livable city in Vienna,” said Schöttel . A guide may already be on its way to Zidane, showing him the way to the best extended coffee in the coffee house between internationals.
There was never much applause for Austria’s former national soccer coach Franco Foda.
(Photo: Florian Schroetter/AP)
Andreas Herzog would be someone who knows about punch donuts and doesn’t need a travel guide in Vienna or anywhere else between Bregenz and Bratislava. The name of Austria’s record national player has been mentioned so often when looking for a new team boss that the ORF wrote that he was “traditionally” one of the candidates for the post. In the last search, Herzog was already on Schöttel’s shortlist, alongside Thorsten Fink and Franco Foda. Maybe this time he’ll get one round further, but the presidium expects a “clear proposal” from the sports director and no longer three possible coaches, one of which then turns out to be a misunderstanding that lasted four and a half years without a clear footballing idea.
Prohaska also intervenes
The President of the Upper Austrian Association, Gerhard Götschhofer, therefore immediately rejected any sporting competence and said: “The decision as to who becomes the Austrian team boss can only be made by an expert, and we only have one expert in the ÖFB for this purpose, that is the sports director.” This was a threat that didn’t even bother to hide behind a compliment. There are a few other experts in Austria, but most of them write columns or speak on television and don’t work for the ÖFB. None of them said a good word about Foda – or about Schöttel: Former striker Marc Janko, a good, cool analyst, correctly asked whether there ever was “a concept of how you want to play football”. And the only true football authority named Herbert Prohaska demanded: “A line must be given by the sports director and his team.”
One thing is certain long before the next coach is presented: Whatever happens in the coming years, it will be Schöttels fault. Regardless of whether he pulls Zidane out of a hat, chooses the most obvious option with Peter Stöger, who is currently without a club, or embarks on an experiment with Herzog that would be nice to watch simply because of the entertainment value.