Herbert Prohaska
Herbert Prohaska (born 8 August 1955 in Vienna, Austria) is a retired Austrian football player. He is among Austria's greatest football players of all time. His nickname "Schneckerl", Viennese dialect for curly hair, comes from his curly haircut in his younger years. He works as an analyst for Austrian television and writes for Austria's most popular newspaper.
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Herbert Prohaska | ||
| Date of birth | 8 August 1955 | ||
| Place of birth | Vienna, Austria | ||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Vorwärts XI | |||
| 1970–1972 | Ostbahn XI | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1972–1980 | Austria Vienna | 259 | (62) |
| 1980–1982 | Inter Milan | 56 | (8) |
| 1982–1983 | Roma | 26 | (3) |
| 1983–1989 | Austria Vienna | 194 | (35) |
| Total | 535 | (108) | |
| National team | |||
| 1974–1989 | Austria | 83 | (10) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1990–1992 | Austria Vienna | ||
| 1993–1999 | Austria | ||
| 1999–2000 | Austria Vienna | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only | |||
Career
Prohaska was born into a working class family. His father was a worker and his mother cleaned rooms. His father was coach of a youth team of Vorwärts XI. Here Prohaska started his career at the age of 9, then he played for the minor league club SC Ostbahn XI in Vienna. Then he went on to FK Austria Wien and became a professional player. He played at the age of 16 for the first team of Austria Wien. Between 1972 and 1980 he won four Austrian league titles and three cups. In 1980 he went to Italy where he played for Inter Milan and later for AS Roma. In Italy he won the championship with Inter and the cup with Roma. From 1983 to 1989 he played for FK Austria Wien and won another three championships and one cup. He retired from playing football in 1989.
Shortly afterwards he became coach of Austria Wien an won the championship twice. 1993 he became coach of the football national team. His biggest success was the qualification for the FIFA World Cup in 1998 as winner of the group stage. 1999 he resigned after a 0:9 defeat versus Spain. But in his era the team was number 17 in the FIFA team ranking, a place which could not reach another team coach ever since. From 1999 till 2000 he was again coach of Austria Wien.
After the end of his football career he became an analyst for Austrian Television (ORF) and he wrote for the newspaper "Kronen-Zeitung". In 2011 he was elected "Austria Wien player of the century".
International career
From 1974 to 1989 he played 84 matches for Austria and scored 12 goals. One of his goals, against Turkey, helped Austria to qualify for the 1978 FIFA World Cup.
Honours
Player:
- 7x Austrian Champion with FK Austria Wien: 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986
- 4x Austrian Cup with FK Austria Wien: 1974, 1977, 1980, 1986
- 1x Champion Italy Seria A with AS Roma: 1983
- 1x Italian Cup with Inter Mailand: 1982
- FIFA World Cup:1978, 1982
- 3x Austrian Footballer of the Year: 1984, 1985, 1988
- FK Austria Wien:Team of the century
Coach:
- 2x Austrian Champion with FK Austria Wien: 1991, 1992
- 2x Austrian Cup with FK Austria Wien: 1990, 1992
- FIFA World Cup: 1998
Reading
- ballesterer fm Nr.68 January,February 2012-Prohaska, Austrianer, Held & Hawara (German language-main article about Herbert Prohaska)
Herbert Prohaska Media
Prohaska working for the ORF in 2013
Other websites
- Player profile Archived 2012-10-14 at the Wayback Machine – Austria Archive
- UEFA.com article on Austria's Golden Player
- Career stats – National Football Teams