From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Karim Onisiwo out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Austria Wien will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Reinhold Ranftl falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Karim Onisiwo out for 39 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Austria Wien will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match25 Jan 2027
30 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market25 Jan 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Austria Wien they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Austria Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reinhold Ranftl is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Sandro Ingolitsch was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market25 Jan 2027
The Romeo Vučić conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Grodig will make the call about Romeo Vučić this week. Austria Wien have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Karim Onisiwo breaks a bone — 47 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad18 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market18 Jan 2027
The name of Kelvin Boateng has come up in conversations Austria Wien were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Karim Onisiwo breaks a bone — 56 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market11 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Austria Wien did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
Karim Onisiwo breaks a bone — 63 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Austria Wien did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market4 Jan 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Austria Wien, and it is not being withdrawn.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
Karim Onisiwo breaks a bone — 72 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match28 Dec 2026
Austria Wien refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 30 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Austria Wien may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Karim Onisiwo breaks a bone — 81 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Reinhold Ranftl falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Nicolas Cozza was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Karim Onisiwo out for 89 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Austria Wien will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.16 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Austria Wien know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Abubakr Barry was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Karim Onisiwo breaks a bone — 97 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for Johannes Eggestein, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abubakr Barry commits to Austria Wien for another 5 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Karim Onisiwo breaks a bone — 104 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match25 Nov 2026
Altach are out and Austria Wien go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 34. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Illan Meslier: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match25 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Austria Wien's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Austria Wien has to find a result from somewhere.
Match30 Nov 2026
Austria Wien refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 30 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Abubakr Barry was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2026
2‑3, and no way to dress it up. A derby defeat follows a supporter to work on Monday, and this one will follow him all week.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Karim Onisiwo breaks a bone — 113 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match21 Nov 2026
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad23 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Reinhold Ranftl falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
The crowd has taken to Romeo Vučić
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Romeo Vučić at his very best
Marked 8.75. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Austria Wien.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cican Stanković, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Noah Botic leaves them behind him
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Karim Onisiwo out for 121 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Austria Wien will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.65 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match14 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Austria Wien's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Austria Wien has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Nov 2026
At 20, Sanel Šaljić is already the best thing here
An average of 7.16 in a first team he is several years too young for. Austria Wien have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Abubakr Barry was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match14 Nov 2026
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Paco Alcácer gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match14 Nov 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Karim Onisiwo out for 130 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Austria Wien will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The medical room confirms 49 days on the sidelines for Johannes Eggestein, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for Austria Wien
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Austria Wien are no longer polite ones.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for Lee Tae-Suk, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match7 Nov 2026
1‑2 to Red Bull Salzburg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Manfred Fischer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.38. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Market9 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Austria Wien, another week without a signature from Manfred Fischer.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
92% of the income goes out in wages at Austria Wien
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Karim Onisiwo out for 137 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Austria Wien will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match2 Nov 2026
Austria Wien refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 29 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Sanel Šaljić, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.67
A mark of 8.67 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match31 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Austria Wien did not have in the autumn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Austria Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reinhold Ranftl is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Abubakr Barry
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Austria Wien lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Karim Onisiwo yet — 8.61
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.61 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad26 Oct 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match24 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Austria Wien did not have in the autumn.
Squad26 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Reinhold Ranftl falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
4.82. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Abubakr Barry
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Austria Wien lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Oct 2026
He is 20, he is averaging 7.06, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Match17 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Austria Wien did not have in the autumn.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Austria Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reinhold Ranftl is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Lee Tae-Suk in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Manprit Sarkaria at his very best
Marked 8.62. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Austria Wien.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad12 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.82, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match10 Oct 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Reinhold Ranftl falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Oct 2026
23 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Abubakr Barry was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Austria Wien are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Austria Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reinhold Ranftl is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Lee Kang-Hee at his very best
Marked 9.39. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Austria Wien.
Match3 Oct 2026
Three points for Austria Wien, 1‑0 the final word against Grodig in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
29 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
29 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jacob Ambæk is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Reinhold Ranftl falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Austria Wien
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Wolfsberger AC will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Sep 2026
1‑0 against Rapid Wien, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them and it is a story a city tells for a decade. Austria Wien have their man.
Match19 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Austria Wien have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Austria Wien know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Abubakr Barry was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Austria Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reinhold Ranftl is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Johannes Handl, and the manager let it.
Market21 Sep 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Austria Wien know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
24 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
24 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Kelvin Boateng at his very best
Marked 9.57. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Austria Wien.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Abubakr Barry falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nicolas Cozza was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match12 Sep 2026
Sturm Graz made Austria Wien work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cican Stanković, and the manager let it.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Sep 2026
Austria Wien refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 13 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nicolas Cozza gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nicolas Cozza has just signed for Austria Wien, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Karim Onisiwo yet — 7.98
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market7 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Austria Wien did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Abubakr Barry was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Austria Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reinhold Ranftl is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Lee Kang-Hee was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.17. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.98, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from FC Copenhagen for Johannes Eggestein was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Sanel Šaljić at 20 — 8.45
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sanel Šaljić did not need any: 8.45, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market31 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Austria Wien, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Samuel Sahin-Radlinger was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Florian Wustinger has come up in conversations Austria Wien were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match29 Aug 2026
SV Ried left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Illan Meslier
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Sanel Šaljić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Mihajlo Cvetković at 19 — 8.16
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mihajlo Cvetković did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
27 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Abubakr Barry was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market24 Aug 2026
Dejan Radonjić has left for Wolfsberger AC in a $780.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Austria Wien training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reinhold Ranftl is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Aug 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Lee Kang-Hee scored in the 87th minute, Mattersburg had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Austria Wien took the lot.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Illan Meslier gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Illan Meslier has just signed for Austria Wien, and for once the answer mattered.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Sanel Šaljić, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Wien this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.57, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Lee Kang-Hee’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Austria Wien.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Johannes Eggestein commits to Austria Wien for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Samuel Sahin-Radlinger was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Austria Wien have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Abubakr Barry falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.21 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.16. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Austria Wien.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
35 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match1 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from New York Red Bulls for Johannes Eggestein was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Abdoulaye Kanté at 21 — 9.10
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Abdoulaye Kanté did not need any: 9.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A debut Sanel Šaljić will not forget — 8.39
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 8.39 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Reinhold Ranftl and Austria Wien agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Abubakr Barry was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.50, and no argument anywhere in the ground.