Mathias Sindelar the “Mozart of football”
Matthias Sindelar, the “Mozart of football” who did not give in to Nazism.
“He didn’t have any muscles, he didn’t show any consistency. In profile he looked flat, thin, transparent, as if – excuse the somewhat irreverent Alpine phrase that comes to mind – the mother had, by mistake, sat on him as a newborn. Seeing them play, she was transformed. He was the master of the ball, the feint artist. The lack of physique he made up for immediately with his intelligence. He had learned to unmark himself in a masterly way. Left free he distributed, sorted, dictated attack themes, became the true intelligence of the front line.
(Vittorio Pozzo)
The greatest Austrian footballer of all time was born in 1903 in Moravia into a Jewish family. His father died on the Isonzo in 1917 and Matthias found himself managing a laundry in Vienna with his mother and three sisters. Thought of him, however, already turns to those improvised balls with which he plays in the street in his spare time, until someone notices him and invites him to play for Hertha. From here he quickly arrives at Austria Vienna and never leaves again, winning two Mitropa Cups, a Scudetto and six Austrian Cups. Even in the Wunderteam, the unattainable Austrian national team of the 1930s led by Hugo Meisl, Sindelar sparked, scoring 27 goals in 43 games played. At the time he obviously became a legend in Austria, so much so that his incredible popularity led him to be one of the first footballers chosen as advertising testimonials.
Sindelar’s fate, however, inevitably collides with that of his country, and not only for religious reasons: on 12 March 1938, the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Germany, took place. The “party” atmosphere that accompanies the event also implies a football match, the last of the Wunderteam before it is absorbed by the reich’s representative: on April 3 the legendary Prater in Vienna is packed, in the grandstand the Nazi leaders rub hands thinking of those Austrian talents who will make the German national team great. Sindelar takes over his team – orphaned by coach Meisl who died shortly before – and orders his teammates to proudly wear the red and white jersey for the last time. On the pitch Matthias is a fury, and his great performance is enriched by the goal that breaks the deadlock in the 62nd minute. The ceremonial included, in the event of a goal, the Nazi salute to the grandstand, but Sindelar didn’t respect this and rejoiced with all his strength. In the 71st minute, as if that weren’t enough, the full-back Karl Sesta doubles and fixes the result on 2-0. A good match was expected that both teams would address the authorities showing off the usual outstretched arm as a sign of respect for National Socialism, but the two Austrian scorers refuse and their arms remain firmly attached to the body. The final blow to Nazi Germany, Sindelar inflicts it by refusing to wear the shirt of the new national team that has absorbed his Wunderteam. After all this, the “Mozart of football” still manages to play a few matches defending the colors of Austria Vienna (despite its president, a Jew, having been dismissed from office), but only because the Gestapo in those years could not allow such a popular character to suddenly disappear.
On January 23, 1939, however, Sindelar was found dead next to his Milanese companion Camilla Castagnola, a nurse – also Jewish – whom he met during a hospitalization to recover from an injury. The cause of their deaths is still a mystery; the official version speaks of carbon monoxide coming from a defective stove, but there are also those who speak of suicide due to the inability to accept the Anschluß. Suspicions of political murder obviously exist and are well founded, also because the Gestapo immediately dismissed the case by hurriedly burying the two bodies. Even this alone of mystery contributes to the myth of Sindelar, which Austria, as soon as it regained sovereignty, paid homage to with a mausoleum in the central cemetery of Vienna. Since then, every 23 January a small ceremony has been held on the grave of the Wunderteam star which is attended by members of the Football Federation and managers of Austria Vienna, but also ordinary people who have understood that this story goes beyond football, like that damned thing. goal scored by Sindelar against the German “brothers”.
Source: www.calcioromantico.com
ON THE DEATH OF A FOOTBALLER
He was a son of Benjamin
and his name was Matthias Sindelar.
It stood in the center of the green square,
because he was a center forward.
He played football, and he knew
not much of life other than that.
He lived, because he had to live
of football for football.
He played football like no other,
he scored full of wit and imagination.
He played relaxed, light and serene,
he always played, never fought.
Partly threw the blond tuft,
let things go,
and attacked for the green length
and sometimes up to the goal.
They cheered the Hohe Warte,
the Prater and the Stadion,
when smiling deceived the opponent
and with an agile run he freed himself from it.
Until one day another opponent
suddenly it came across him,
a stranger and fearfully superior,
before which there was no rule or remedy.
From a single heavy kick
player Sindelar found himself
kicked out of the center of the field
because it was the new order.
He stood there a moment longer,
before leaving and going home.
In football, just like in life,
it was over with the Viennese school.
He used to combine,
and combined a few days.
Her perspective made him guess,
that his chance lay in the gas barrel.
The door, through which he at last passed,
it was utterly silent and dark.
He was a son of Benjamin
and his name was Matthias Sindelar.
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