Gerhard Rodax (29 August 1965 – 16 November 2022) was an Austrian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a striker.

Club career

Rodax was born in Tattendorf. He started his professional career at Admira Wacker and stayed with them for seven years, becoming

Austrian Football 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 ...

top goalscorer in 1990. That earned him a contract at Spanish side

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

, but he lasted just over one season with them and returned to Austria to join

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English, is an Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the f ...

where he finished his career in 1993 at 28 years of age. In the 1995–96 season he made a short comeback at Admira.

International career

Rodax 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 1985 and was a participant at 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 ...

, where he scored in the 2–1 win over the USA in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. Rodax won 20 international caps, scoring three goals. His last international was a May 1991 friendly 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

Rodax died near

Traiskirchen Traiskirchen is a city and Municipality (Austria), Municipality in the district of Baden (district of Austria), Baden in Lower Austria in Austria. It is 20 km south of Vienna, in the Thermenlinie region, known for its wine and heurigers. Trai ...

on 16 November 2022, at the age of 57.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Austria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Rodax goal.''

Honours

Atlético Madrid *

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

: 1991 Individual *

top scorer: 1990

References

External links

Rapid stats
- Rapid Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodax, Gerhard 1965 births 2022 deaths People from Baden District, Austria Austrian men's footballers Footballers from Lower Austria Men's association football forwards Austria men's international footballers 1990 FIFA World Cup players Austrian Football Bundesliga players La Liga players Admira Wacker players Atlético Madrid footballers SK Rapid Wien players Austrian expatriate men's footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain 20th-century Austrian sportsmen Railway accident deaths in Austria