Austria manager Josef Hickersberger is about to embark on the most important few weeks of his career during EURO 2008 on home soil and over the border in Switzerland. Yet some people are still not convinced by -him and his young team …
Of course he heard it. Josef Hickersberger is not deaf. And he certainly was not able to simply ignore it. Even Hickersberger, one of the calmest managers around, could not shrug his shoulders and let the entire crowd in Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium mock him and chant “Hicke out!”. “Of course it hurt,” he admits. “But it comes with the territory. Anyway, calls for the manager’s head are not just an Austrian thing … even Jurgen Klinsmann was booed by his own fans just a few months before the FIFA World Cup™. Afterwards, the whole country adored him.”
Josef Hickersberger has not exactly had it easy. His job is not easy either. When he took over some two-and-a-half years ago, Austrian football was in the doldrums. Clubs were going bust and having a torrid time in Europe, and the national team was languishing in the middle of the FIFA/ Coca-Cola World Ranking, jockeying for position around 90th place with the likes of Cuba and Armenia. “I didn’t really think about how hard it would be,” he says now. “I just wondered how long it would take us to build a team capable of holding theit own against the best in the wotld.”
Hicketsberget used his first two years for experiments, taking a look at about 50 players and trying various formations and systems while taking the rough (a 1-0 loss to Venezuela and a 2-0 defeat by Chile) with the smooth (a 3-2 win over Cote d’lvoire and a 2-1 victory over fellow EURO 2008 hosts Switzerland). 2007 was to prove a black year for Austria, however, with only a solitary victory. “It goes without saying that I wasn’t always happy with the results,” says Hickersberger, “but I look at our matches and results differently. For me, the key date is 8 June 2008.” That is when Austria will play their first match in “their” tournament.
FEARLESS FUTURE
That explains why Austria’s boss will not be affected by whistles and cat-calls from the crowd or by criticism from pundits or fellow managers. “I know that many people think it is wrong for me to be so calm and composed when so many of our fans are panicking … but I am a patient person.” He has plotted Austria’s route to the EURO and has no intention of changing it now, even though others are worried and in some cases even angry. Since taking over in 2006, Hickersberger has injected a lot of young blood into his team by introducing players that nobody had heard of before they took last year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada by storm, reaching the semi-finals and winning a whole legion of new fans back home in the process. Youngsters like Sebastian Prodi, who will move to Werder Bremen after EURO 2008, Martin Harnik, Veli Kavlak and Erwin Hoffer are the figureheads of the new, fearless Austrian future, which will actually begin at the European Championship because Hickersberger is steadfastly refusing to heed constant “advice” to bring veterans such as 38-year-old Ivica Vastic, Austrian player of the year in 2007, or Didi Kuhlbauer, who at 36 is still one of the best Austrian midfielders around, back into the fold. “I don’t believe in doing something just for the sake of it. It would be a mistake for us to change our plans now,” he insists.
Hickersberger evidently enjoys working with raw, talented teenagers. He also had the courage of his convictions during his first spell in the Austrian hotseat by naming a number of inexperienced players in his squad for the 1990 FIFA World Cup™ in Italy. “We had the youngest team in the tournament,” says Hickersberger. “Most of them were still around for the 1998 World Cup in France, too.” Hickersberger had long vacated the Austria manager’s office by then, however, resigning shortly after Italia ’90 in the wake of an embarrassing 1-0 defeat at the hands of the Faroe Islands in the race to qualify for EURO ’92. That defeat saw him lumbered with the humiliating nickname of “Faroe Pepi” [Ed. Pepi is short for Josef], a burden he still has to bear even though the shame of that defeat has long since been forgotten.
CORDOBA, CORDOBA
The “Faroe flop” is hardly talked about any more, but the same cannot be said about Cordoba. 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of Austria’s remarkable 3-2 victory over their West German rivals at the 1978 FIFA World Cup™ in Argentina, a game that saw the entire country “go crazy” and not merely an excitable Austrian TV commentator. The final draw for EURO 2008 actually reignited Cordoba mania and even Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer is on record as saying he is looking forward to seeing Austria go head to head with Germany again in their final group match. Hickersberger was part of the Cordoba 1978 team that also featured Hans Krankl, Herbert Prohaska and Bruno Pezzey, but today he refuses to buy into the hype, insisting that: “It was a fantastic victory for us … nothing more, nothing less”.
Instead, he firmly believes that Austrian football rested on its laurels and spent too long reminiscing about glorious victories from years gone by. “Twenty years ago, we all thought that a superstar like Prohaska, Krankl or Pezzey would come along every ten years, so we didn’t invest heavily in youth development. Unfortunately, since then we haven’t found too many players of their ilk.”
It was a dilemma that Hickersberger was all too familiar with even before he accepted the job. The Bosman ruling brought about a sea change in Austrian football as most clubs moved to sign foreigners rather than concentrating on bringing their own players through the system. Up until recently, the ten-club Austrian league would often feature 100 or more foreign players and that naturally had an effect on the position of Austria manager. It took the introduction of the so-called “Austria pot” [Ed. a system that rewards clubs with TV money for focusing on home-grown talent] for clubs to sit down and rethink their strategy, thereby indirectly boosting the national team’s prospects. That will not happen overnight, however, and it is quite conceivable that it will not be Hickersberger who reaps the rewards but rather his successor. “It would
be fantastic if we could create a shock or two at the EURO,” says Hickersberger, who ever since the final draw has had to battle against what some people call another “typical Austrian trait” — the tendency to massively overestimate one’s own chances or abilities. “The comments about our group quite clearly show that we are overestimating ourselves,” insists Hickersberger. “People are saying ‘OK, we’ve got Croatia, they’re in the top ten in the world, but they’re not unbeatable’. What they are forgetting, though, is that Austria have only beaten two teams from the top ten of the FIFA world ranking since 1996.”
Josef Hickersberger is not a pessimist, he is a realist. He knows Austrian football and the Austrian mentality inside out, so he knows exactly how hard his job will be at the European Championship. “Our first match will be crucial,” he says. “Beating Croatia would give us wings. We saw with Germany in 2006 just what can happen if you win your opening match.” If that were to happen, he would not hear whistles and cat-calls in the Ernst Happel Stadium. Instead, the fans would be chanting the name of Josef “Faroe Pepi” Hickersberger. And that, too, would be typical of Austria.

Vagner Love
Name: Vagner Silva de Souza, nicknamed “Vagner Love”
Born: 11 June 1984 in Rio de Janeiro
Nationality: Brazil
Position: Forward
Height: 1.71m
Weight: 72kg
Clubs: Until 2004: Palmeiras. Since 2004: CSKA Moscow.
Honours: UEFA Cup winner (2005). Copa America winner (2004 and 2007). Russian League champion (2005 and 2006). 11 caps for Brazil, 2 goals.

From Russia With Love
Brazilian striker Vagner Love has finally broken into the national team – even though he moved to Russia early in his career.
Until recently, moving to Russia could signal the death knell for a Brazilian player’s international career. Carlos Alberto Parreira, who coached Brazil from 2003 until after the 2006 FIFA World Cup™, made it abundantly clear that, to be even considered for selection, a player needed to play in one of the major European leagues such as Italy, Spain, England or Germany. Those who had moved to the new El Dorados such as Turkey, Russia, Japan or the Ukraine need not apply.
One of the players to lose out was Vagner Love. At the age of 19, Love had been instrumental in helping Palmeiras return to the first division at the first attempt and he had played for the Brazilian side that won the Copa America in Peru in 2004. Shortly afterwards, he moved to CSKA Moscow and his international career floundered.
As Parreira had warned, Vagner Love was overlooked when the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ squad was named even though he had played a key role in helping CSKA win the UEFA Cup the year before, scoring in the 3-1 final win over Sporting Lisbon.
“My international career stagnated because I went to Russia,” he said in an interview shortly afterwards. “Parreira decided not to watch players who were in Eastern Europe. I’m sure that if I had continued in Brazil or if I had gone to one of the big European leagues, I would have had a chance for a place at .the World Cup.”
In the end, Brazil only made the quarter¬finals in Germany before losing 1-0 to France. Parreira quit and his successor, Dunga, brought in under orders to rebuild and rejuvenate the side, decided to look east for a change.
Along with Elano (playing for Shakthar Donetsk at the time) and his club mate Daniel Carvalho, Vagner Love was one of the players to benefit. “I don’t regret joining CSKA but thank God Dunga looked over here,” he said.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Vagner Love — as his nickname suggests — has long cultivated a reputation as a “Don Juan”. “Even in his infancy, Vagner showed that he had a way with women,” says his official website proudly. “When he was around 12 years old, the lambada was in fashion in Brazil. The boy was a great dancer and he practiced the steps with his sister so that he could dance with girls at parties. Vagner was the only boy who knew how to dance and so all the girls asked him to dance with them.”
But his womanising got him into trouble in 2002 when he was playing for Palmeiras in the Sao Paulo Juniors’ Cup. Vagner naughtily sneaked a girl into the team headquarters and was caught. His suspension lasted only a few days but his new nickname – Vagner Love – has stuck with him ever since.
“I regret doing it and I would never do it again,” he said. “My advice to players who are starting their careers is to never do anything like that because they run the risk of leaving a mark on their careers, something which very luckily did not happen to me. To start with, I didn’t like the nickname Love, but I got used to it.”
The incident failed to halt his career, however. Shortly afterwards, he was promoted to the Palmeiras first team and he scored 19 goals to help them out of the second division, to which they had been relegated the season before for the first time in their history.
DEBUT AGAINST COSTA RICA
Vagner continued to hit the target in the first half of 2004 and he was rewarded with a trip to the Copa America, where he made his international debut in a 4-1 win over Costa Rica.
Then he left for Russia. Few Brazilians had made the move at the time and the combination of the snow, the language and the lack of Brazilian beans and rice was expected to make it difficult for him. Vagner, however, quickly moved into goalscoring mode and said the club helped him to settle in. And as other Brazilian players joined, it was a case of whether Russia was ready for Vagner Love rather than vice-versa.
“I think we’ve changed the atmosphere in the team camp. Before, they were cold. The coach shouted at the players a lot. Now he talks, jokes around, tries to lighten the atmosphere. Training is lively,” he said.
He even found the courage to stand up to President Vladimir Putin, who criticised the number of foreigners playing for local clubs. “It’s up to the clubs to decide who they sign,” said Vagner. “If the teams here don’t give a chance to Russian players, it’s not his problem, nor is it mine.”
Vagner regularly hit the back of the net but he could not get back in the Brazil team. After his single appearance against Costa Rica, he had to wait more than two years before Dunga took over and gave him another chance.
He made his return when he came on as a substitute in a 3-0 friendly win over Argentina in 2006 and scored his first international goal three days later in a win over Wales.
After that, circumstances conspired to favour Vagner. Adriano and Ronaldo were out of favour while Lyons Fred, who would have been the number one choice for the striker’s role, was injured, handing Vagner an unexpected chance.
UNSELFISH PLAY
He was the first choice centre-forward as Brazil retained in the Copa America in Venezuela last year and, although the Brazilian media criticised him for only scoring one goal in the tournament, coach Dunga saw other virtues and repeatedly praised his unselfish play.
Nevertheless, wearing the number nine shirt, which previously belonged to Ronaldo, is a heavy burden for any Brazilian player. Incredibly, Vagner Love was jeered off the field at the Maracana against Ecuador in October, even though he had scored in a 5-0 victory.
Dunga leapt to his defence. “We have this fixation about the number nine,” Dunga said. “If we put a number 20 on the field and he started scoring lots of goals, it would cause mayhem. When I played for Brazil, Romario was the marksman but he wore number 11, so I suppose today he would be out of the team.”
Vagner did not seem unduly bothered by the reaction, however. Immediately after die game, Vagner led the celebrations with Ronaldinho as a group of Brazilian players hired an entire nightclub, only emerging at around 10 o’clock the following morning.

While most New Zealanders were enjoying their traditional barbeques at the beach during one of the hottest summers on record, New Zealand’s football community was served a feast of legacy initiatives in preparation for the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in October and November 2008.
The array of delights started at the end of January with the Future Stars four-nation tournament in Auckland, the “City of Sails”. Featuring U-17 national girls’ teams from perennial rivals the USA and Germany and trans-Tasman adversaries Australia and New Zealand, the four-team competition gave those who stayed in town for the summer break a real taste of what is to come.
Both the USA and Germany had easy wins over their opponents from Down Under, which meant that the final matchday of USA v. Germany and New Zealand v. Australia was a thrilling showdown for top place and the wooden spoon. In a showcase of talent for the future, the USA pipped Germany 3-2 to take top place while Australia converted a penalty to win 1-0 and edge out New Zealand for third place. As expected, the USA and Germany were certainly a class or two above their counterparts from the southern hemisphere but all four teams showed that the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup will be worth taking time out to watch despite its early stage of development.
Alongside the thrill of seeing two of the world’s top women’s football nations grace the pitch, the New Zealand public was also fortunate to be first on the list of official duties for the newly crowned president of the local organising committee (LOC) for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011, Steffi Jones. Capped 111 times by Germany, Jones’ presence at the tournament was a huge source of motivation for the participants – not only the Germans. Jones was able to pass on insightful tips and advice to New Zealand’s top senior and U-20 female players as well as to members of the country’s women’s football advisory group. She also had high-level meetings with LOC and association representatives and was kept busy with increasing media interest during her eight-day visit.
As always, however, her heart lay close to the football and she was certainly impressed with what she saw at Future Stars. “I am so jealous of these girls’ skills. They can do tricks I never could have done. The tournament had a perfect title because these players will be the future stars of the game.”
POWELL’S PROGRAMME
Someone else who knows how important it is to identify and nurture the talent of the future is England women’s coach Hope Powell, who visited New Zealand shortly afterwards for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup coach and referee roadshow as part of the legacy programme around the event. Along with FIFA head of women’s refereeing Sonia Denoncourt, Powell conducted two seminars and a practical session in each of the four FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup host cities (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton) as well as in New Zealand’s top city for referees, Palmerston North. All within a five-day period!
The 450 male and female participants from all levels of New Zealand’s coaching and refereeing community were spellbound by the talented pair – to the point where sessions ran up to 90 minutes over time.
“At each venue we could have gone on for ten hours because there were so many questions but we eventually had to stop,” reported Denoncourt. “In all of the venues, they were hungry for technical information but also very much enjoyed the storytelling.”
Denoncourt subsequently delighted the audiences with her stories of refereeing FIFA Women’s World Cup, Olympic and professional men’s games.
In particular, participants’ mouths dropped open as she described sending Cafu off in a cauldron-like atmosphere in Brazil. Such experiences will help to inspire participants to reach the top of their game, regardless of what level of refereeing they are currently at.
The seminars were split into grassroots and elite levels but in both, there was similar banter between Denoncourt and Powell as to who had the best job after the players.
“I am sure Sonia said that refereeing is the next best thing after playing but you shouldn’t listen to her,” Powell told participants with a cheeky smile, “because coaching is for sure the next best thing after playing. Seriously though, people should find out what they are good at and if that is refereeing or coaching, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that they get involved or stay in the game.”
GOOD ROLE MODELS
Powell also made a strong and pertinent point to participants about the involvement of women in women’s football. “Fifteen years ago, I would have said that it doesn’t matter if a women’s team is coached by a man or a woman — I would have said that it is all about who is best for the job. Today, I still say you’ve got to have the right person with the necessary skills but now I really endorse females being appointed. That’s because they provide good role models and can inspire young girls to become coaches themselves. The fact that I am the head coach in England has helped bring other female coaches into the game. Women will also stay in women’s football whereas men will sometimes use women’s football as a stepping stone or a stopgap until they get a better offer. Women coaches are therefore necessary for the survival of our game.”
The impact that Powell, Denoncourt and Jones made in New Zealand will hopefully be evidenced when Denoncourt returns for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in October this year, potentially accompanied by Powell and Jones if England and Germany make it through the tough UEFA U-17 women’s qualification process. Whatever happens, the legacy of their visit in February will continue to thrive in New Zealand’s grateful football community.