The Austrian Wunderteam: The Greatest Team You Don’t Know About

When we think of incredible football teams, the mind immediately wanders to the likes of Brazil 1970, West Germany of 1974 or more recently Manchester United’s 1999 Treble winners, Arsenal’s Invincibles or the Spain team of 2008-2012. What about the Wunderteam? It could be argued that the icons of Austrian football tend to get overlooked when we talk about the great teams of the past.

The Wunderteam is the name given to Hugo Meisl’s Austria team of the 1930s who became renowned for the quick passing style of play that was made famous in Scotland and then introduced to Europe by Jimmy Hogan (there’s probably an argument in there that the real ‘home’ of football is Scotland).

Hogan – an Englishman, was born in 1882 in Lancashire he was considered a talented player and had an 11-year playing career with the likes of Burnley, Fulham, and Bolton Wanderers. It is Hogan’s venture into coaching that is most interesting as without Jimmy Hogan, the Wunderteam wouldn’t have existed.

His first managerial role was at Dordrecht in The Netherlands where he set about implementing the combination game (the passing game as we know it today). After a single game stint in charge of the Netherlands National Team, Hogan landed the Austria Wien job in 1911-1912, his successor would be none other than Hugo Meisl.