Matthias Sindelar

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Matthias Sindelar
Personal information
Full name Matthias Sindelar
Date of birth February 10, 1903
Place of birth    Kozlov, Jihlava, Austria-Hungary
Date of death    January 23, 1939
Place of death    Vienna, Austria
Height 1.79 m (5 ft 10+1⁄2 in)
Playing position Centre-forward
Youth clubs
1918-1924 Hertha Vienna
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1924-1939 FK Austria Vienna    
National team
1926-1937 Flag of Austria Austria 43 (27)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Matthias Sindelar (February 10, 1903 — January 23, 1939) was an Austrian footballer. He played centre-forward for the celebrated Austria national team of the early 1930s known as the Wunderteam, which he captained at the 1934 World Cup.

Known as "The Mozart of football", he was voted the best Austrian footballer of the 20th Century in a 1999 poll by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS)[1] and was named Austria's sportsman of the century a year before.[2][3]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Of Czech descent, he was born Matěj Šindelář in Kozlov (Kozlau) near Jihlava, Moravia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, into a poor family of blacksmith Jan Šindelář and his wife Marie née Švengrová. The family moved to Vienna in 1905 and settled in the district of Favoriten with a large Czech-speaking community. Young Matěj/Matthias began playing football in the streets of Vienna.

[edit] Club career (1918-1939)

At the age of 15, the Sindelar joined Hertha Vienna, playing there until 1924, when he was brought to FK Austria Vienna, whose name at the time was Wiener Amateur-SV. He helped the team win the Austrian Cup in 1925 and 1926, and a league title in 1926.

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[edit] Austria national team

From 1926 to 1937, Sindelar was capped 43 times for his country, scoring 27 goals.[4] He scored four goals in his first three international matches, including one in his debut match, a 2-1 victory over Czechoslovakia on September 28, 1926. Sindelar became an essential part of the Austrian Wunderteam that was coached by Hugo Meisl.

[edit] 1934 World Cup

Sindelar and Austria were especially prominent at the 1934 World Cup. The high point was their defeat of Hungary in quarterfinals, when Sindelar was matched up against centre-half György Sárosi, who would go on to claim a runners-up medal at the following World Cup in France. In a bruising encounter, one Hungarian was sent-off, and Johann Horvath, the Austrian midfielder, was injured and missed the semi-final against Italy. Austria then suffered a controversial defeat to the host nation, with Sindelar affected by the harsh marking of Luis Monti.

[edit] Death and myth

Always refusing to leave his home country, Sindelar refused to play for Germany when the Austrian state was annexed by the Nazis in 1938, citing old age or injury as his excuse.

On January 23, 1939 both Sindelar and his girlfriend Camilla Castagnola were found dead at the apartment they shared in Vienna; the official verdict cited carbon monoxide poisoning as the cause.

Sindelar's grave at Vienna's Zentralfriedhof
Sindelar's grave at Vienna's Zentralfriedhof

Austrian writer Friedrich Torberg later dedicated the poem "Auf den Tod eines Fußballers" ("On the death of a footballer") to Sindelar. The poem suggested that he had committed suicide as a result of the German Anschluss of Austria in 1938. On the other hand, it has been thought and reported that his death was accidental, caused by a defective chimney.[5] However, in a 2000s documentary screened on the BBC, Egon Ulbrich, a lifelong friend of the Sindelar, stated that a local official was bribed to record his death as an accident, which ensured that he would receive a state funeral. "According to the Nazi rules, a person who had been murdered or who has committed suicide cannot be given a grave of honour. So we had to do something to ensure that the criminal element involved in his death was removed," he stated.[6]

[edit] Honours

Sindelar was ranked as Austria's best footballer of the twentieth century by the IFFHS, also ranking as the world's 22nd best. His career titles include:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Stokkermans, Karel / RSSSF. IFFHS' Century Elections. RSSSF. Retrieved on 2007-04-09.
  2. ^ (Portuguese) Bardelli, Gino / trivela.com. Sindelar: O craque que não se curvou ao Nazismo. Trivela.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-11.
  3. ^ TheFA.com. "Austria's greatest". The Football Association. Retrieved on 2007-04-09.
  4. ^ According to http://www.austriasoccer.at/LSP/Datenbank/lstat9.htm and http://www.austriasoccer.at/LSP/Datenbank/lstat7.htm (data matches the statistical archives of the Austrian Football Association: Länderspiele von September 1923 - April 1934 and Länderspiele von April 1934 - Mai 1952). The RSSSF page Austria - Record International Players lists 27 goals in 43 matches.
  5. ^ Hesse-Lichtenberger, Uli / ESPNsoccernet.com. "The 'Paper Man' mystery". ESPN. Retrieved on 2007-04-09.
  6. ^ news.bbc.co.uk. "Football, fascism and England's Nazi salute". BBC. Retrieved on 2007-04-09.

[edit] External links

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Austria squad - 1934 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place
FW Bican • FW Braun • DF Cisar • GK Franzl • FW Hassmann • MF Hofmann • FW Horvath • DF Janda • FW Kaburek • GK Platzer • GK Raftl • FW Schall • DF Schmaus • DF Sesta • FW Sindelar • MF Smistik • FW Stroh • MF Urbanek • FW Viertl • MF Wagner • FW Walzhofer • FW Zischek • Coach: Meisl
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