Matthias Sindelar

Matthias Sindelar

Personal information
Full name	Matthias Sindelar
Date of birth	10 February 1903(1903-02-10)
Place of birth	Kozlov, Austria-Hungary
Date of death	23 January 1939(1939-01-23) (aged 35)
Place of death	Vienna, Nazi Germany
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position	Centre-forward
Youth career
1918–1924	ASV Hertha Vienna
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1924–1939	FK Austria Vienna
National team
1926–1937	Austria	43	(27)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Matthias Sindelar (10 February 1903 – 23 January 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" or 'Der Papierene' – 'the Paper-man' for his slight build, he was renowned as one the finest pre-war footballers, known for his fantastic dribbling ability and creativity. 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]

Early years

Of Czech descent, he was born Matěj Šindelář in Kozlov, Moravia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, into a poor Jewish 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.

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, up to 1926. He helped the team win the Austrian Cup in 1925, 1926, 1933, 1935 and 1936, a league title in 1926, and the Mitropa Cup in 1933 and 1936.

In 2001, Sindelar was chosen in Austria's Team of the Century.

Sindelar was arguably one of Europe's best and, in scope, most influential footballers of his generation, recognized for his ball control, passing and dribbling, and especially his creativity. Anecdote has it that some Viennese football fans went to Sindelar's games not only to see him play but to get a better understanding of how football should be played.

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 28 September 1926. Sindelar became an essential part of the Austrian Wunderteam that was coached by Hugo Meisl.

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.

Austria v Germany 1938

On 3 April 1938, the Austrian team played Germany in the Prater Stadium in Vienna, its last match as an independent Austrian team, as some weeks earlier, Germany had annexed Austria (Anschluss) and the Nazis ordered the dissolution of the Austrian team into a common team with Germany, albeit it had qualified for the 1938 FIFA World Cup. The match (German: "Anschlussspiel") was dubbed as a game for celebrating the Anschluss and Austria's "coming home to the Reich". The Austrians played on the wish of Sindelar in red-white-red kits (the national flags colours) instead of their traditional white and black. Austria missed out many sitters in a way it looked deliberate. However in the last 20 minutes, Sindelar and team-mate Karl Sesta both scored as the game finished 2-0.^[5] Sindelar is reported to have celebrated extravagantly in front of senior Nazi dignitaries. In the rematch, Germany responded by winning 9-1.

International caps and goals

The following is a list of Sindelar's international appearances and goals with the Austria national football team.

Cap #	Date	Location	Type of match	Result	Opponent	Minutes played	Goals	Notes
1.	Sep 28, 1926	Prague	Friendly	2-1	Czechoslovakia	90	1
2.	Oct 10, 1926	Vienna	Friendly	7-1	Switzerland	90	2
3.	Nov 7, 1926	Vienna	Friendly	3-1	Sweden	90	1
4.	Mar 20, 1927	Vienna	Friendly	1-2	Czechoslovakia	90	0
5.	Apr 10, 1927	Vienna	Friendly	6-0	Hungary	48	0	[6]
6.	May 6, 1928	Vienna	Friendly	3-0	Yugoslavia	90	0
7.	Oct 28, 1928	Vienna	Dr. Gerö Cup	2-0	Switzerland	90	0
8.	Mar 23, 1930	Prague	Friendly	2-2	Czechoslovakia	90	0
9.	May 16, 1931	Vienna	Friendly	5-0	Scotland	90	1
10.	May 24, 1931	Berlin	Friendly	6-0	Germany	90	0
11.	Sep 14, 1931	Vienna	Friendly	5-0	Germany	90	3
12.	Oct 4, 1931	Budapest	Dr. Gerö Cup	2-2	Hungary	90	0
13.	Nov 29, 1931	Basel	Dr. Gerö Cup	8-1	Switzerland	90	1
14.	Mar 20, 1932	Vienna	Dr. Gerö Cup	2-1	Italy	90	2
15.	Apr 24, 1932	Vienna	Friendly	8-2	Hungary	90	3	[7]
16.	May 22, 1932	Prague	Dr. Gerö Cup	1-1	Czechoslovakia	90	1
17.	Jul 17, 1932	Stockholm	Friendly	4-3	Sweden	90	1
18.	Oct 2, 1932	Budapest	Friendly	3-2	Hungary	90	0
19.	Oct 23, 1932	Vienna	Dr.GeröCup	3-1	Switzerland	90	0
20.	Dec 7, 1932	London	Friendly	3-4	England	90	1
21.	Feb 12, 1933	Paris	Friendly	4-0	France	90	1
22.	April 9, 1933	Vienna	Friendly	1-2	Czechoslovakia	90	0
23.	Apr 30, 1933	Budapest	Friendly	1-1	Hungary	90	0
24.	Jun 11, 1933	Vienna	Friendly	4-1	Belgium	90	1
25.	Sep 17, 1933	Prague	Friendly	3-3	Czechoslovakia	90	2
26.	Oct 1, 1933	Vienna	Friendly	2-2	Hungary	90	0
27.	Nov 29, 1933	Glasgow	Friendly	2-2	Scotland	90	0
28.	Dec 10, 1933	Amsterdam	Friendly	1-0	Netherlands	90	0
29.	Apr 15, 1934	Vienna	Friendly	5-2	Hungary	90	0
30.	Apr 25, 1934	Vienna	World Cup qualification	6-1	Bulgaria	90	1
31.	May 27, 1934	Turin	World Cup	3-2	France	120	1
32.	May 31, 1934	Bologna	World Cup	2-1	Hungary	90	0
33.	Jun 3, 1934	Milan	World Cup	0-1	Italy	90	0
34.	Sep 23, 1934	Vienna	Dr. Gerö Cup	2-2	Czechoslovakia	90	0
35.	Oct 7, 1934	Budapest	Dr.Gerö Cup	1-3	Hungary	90	0
36.	Mar 24, 1935	Vienna	Dr. Gerö Cup	0-2	Italy	90	0
37.	May 6, 1936	Vienna	Friendly	2-1	England	90	0
38.	May 17, 1936	Rome	Friendly	2-2	Italy	90	0
39.	Sep 27, 1936	Budapest	Dr. Gerö Cup	3-5	Hungary	90	2
40.	Mar 21, 1937	Vienna	Dr. Gerö Cup	2-0	Italy	73	0	[8]
41.	May 9, 1937	Vienna	Friendly	1-1	Scotland	90	0
42.	May 23, 1937	Budapest	Friendly	2-2	Hungary	90	0
43.	Sep 19, 1937	Vienna	Dr. Gerö Cup	4-3	Switzerland	90	1
Totals						3841	26	[9]

Team record

In the 43 matches that Sindelar played, Austria had a total record of 25 victories, 11 draws, and 7 losses.

References

• Austrian Football Association. "Statistics of matches of the Austria national team (September 1923 – April 1934)". www.oefb.at. http://www.oefb.at/_uploads/_elements/3324_file1.pdf. Retrieved 2007-04-12. 

• Austrian Football Association. "Statistics of matches of the Austria national team (April 1934 – May 1952)". www.oefb.at. http://www.oefb.at/_uploads/_elements/3325_file1.pdf. Retrieved 2007-04-12. 

• Kutschera, Ambrosius. "Statistik Österreichischer länderspiele". austriasoccer.at. http://www.austriasoccer.at/LSP/Datenbank/lstat7.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-12. 

Death and myth

Always refusing to leave his home country, Sindelar rejected to play for Germany after the Austrian state was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938 (Anschluss), citing old age or injury as his excuse.

Sindelar's grave at Vienna's Zentralfriedhof

On 23 January 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.

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.^[10] 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.^[11]

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:

• 1× Austrian football championship: 1926
• 5× Austrian Cup: 1925, 1926, 1933, 1935, 1936
• 2× Mitropa Cup: 1933, 1936
• 1× Central European International Cup: 1932

References

1. ^ Stokkermans, Karel / RSSSF. "IFFHS' Century Elections". RSSSF. http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/iffhs-century.html. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
2. ^ (Portuguese) Bardelli, Gino / trivela.com. "Sindelar: O craque que não se curvou ao Nazismo". Trivela.com. http://www.trivela.com/default.asp?pag=ExibirMateria&codMateria=2079&coluna=47. Retrieved 2007-04-11. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "Austria's greatest". The Football Association. 2004-09-02. Archived from [www.thefa.com/England/SeniorTeam/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2004/07/England_vAut_Sindelar.htm the original] on 2005-03-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20050309164808/http://www.thefa.com/England/SeniorTeam/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2004/07/England_vAut_Sindelar.htm. Retrieved 2010-12-27. 
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. ^ Der Papierene
6. ^ Entered game as substitute (42')
7. ^ Scored the first 3 of Austria's goals; second international hat-trick in eight months.
8. ^ Match suspended at the 73rd minute. Not considered official by the Italian Football Federation. Sources: http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/unb-italy-19.html (see note [5]); http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/ital-recintlp.html (see NB); http://www.austriasoccer.at/LSP/1930_39/1937/s1937_02.htm
9. ^ Some sources, including the RSSSF (Austria - Record International Players) list 27 goals in 43 matches. Other sources say he appeared in 44 matches.
10. ^ Hesse-Lichtenberger, Uli / ESPNsoccernet.com. "The 'Paper Man' mystery". ESPN. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=271800&root=europe&cc=3888. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
11. ^ news.bbc.co.uk (September 22, 2003). "Football, fascism and England's Nazi salute". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3128202.stm. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 

External links

• Profile at the official web site of FK Austria
• Tribute web page
• Channel 4 News: Matthias Sindelar
• Career stats – National Football Teams
• Player profile – Austria Archive

Persondata
Name	Sindelar, Matthias
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 10, 1903
Place of birth	Kozlov, Austria-Hungary
Date of death	January 23, 1939
Place of death	Vienna, (Nazi) Germany