Christoph Westerthaler (11 January 1965 – 20 July 2018) was an Austrian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and player.

Club career

Nicknamed ''Gischi'', Westerthaler was a small-built striker who started his professional career at

FC Wacker Innsbruck FC Wacker Innsbruck was an Austrian association football club from Innsbruck, Tyrol. History The ''Fußball-Club Wacker'' ("Valiant") ''Innsbruck'' was established in 1915 by Jakob Hanspeter, Benedikt Hosp, Josef Leitner, Josef Albrecht and o ...

and stayed with them for nine years, split by a two-season period at

LASK Linz Linzer Athletik-Sport-Klub, commonly known as LASK (), or Linzer ASK, is an Austrian professional football club based in Upper-Austrian state capital Linz. It is the oldest football club in that region, and plays in the Austrian Football Bundes ...

. With the Tyrolean side he won two league titles and two domestic cups. In 1994, he moved to SK Vorwärts Steyr only to rejoin LASK two years later. In 1997, he moved abroad and played in Germany for the two major Frankfurt teams and

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its Association football, football section. The footba ...

. In the summer of 2001 he finished his career as a player because of a knee cartilage damage.

International career

Westerthaler made his debut for

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

in an October 1989 friendly match against

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

but was not considered for the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

. He earned 6 caps, no goals scored. His final international game was a November 1993 World Cup qualification match against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Death

On 20 July 2018, Westerthaler died at the age of 53, due to a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

Honours

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

: 1989, 1990 *

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for a record 27th time. Wo ...

: 1989, 1993 * Austrian Bundesliga top goalscorer: 1992

External links

*
German Bundesliga stats
- Fussballportal

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westerthaler, Christoph 1965 births 2018 deaths People from Imst District Footballers from Tyrol (federal state) Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards Austrian men's footballers Austria men's international footballers Austrian expatriate men's footballers FC Wacker Innsbruck players LASK players SK Vorwärts Steyr players APOEL FC players Eintracht Frankfurt players FSV Frankfurt players VfL Osnabrück players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Bundesliga players Cypriot First Division players Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Austrian football managers SV Horn managers FC Tirol Innsbruck players WSG Tirol players FC Swarovski Tirol players 20th-century Austrian sportsmen