Michael Gregoritsch #11

Profile

Gregoritsch has had a tendency to shape the trajectory of Austrian football. Most recently, it was his equaliser against Bosnia and Herzegovina that sent Austria to the World Cup. He keeps delivering even when everyone else – apart from Rangnick – seemed to have stopped believing in him. Once the youngest-ever Austrian goalscorer in the Bundesliga, Gregoritsch has matured during a long career that has taught him to have perspective. “I don’t have to pretend I’m the fastest,” he once said. He has also helped shape how the national team is seen in public, urging people to “pull themselves together” and move “far away” from right-wing thinking, saying football shows what solidarity really means. Speaking immediately after Austria’s qualifier against San Marino, played a day after the attack in Graz, Gregoritsch said he had been deeply shaken because he had grown up “10 minutes from there”, adding that “sometimes football matches are not that important”. On the field, he remains exactly what Austria need: a target man who works, occupies defenders, creates space for midfield and still scores hugely important goals.

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