Anton "Toni" Polster (born 10 March 1964) is an Austrian professional

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 former player. He is the all-time leading goalscorer for the Austria national team with 44 goals and was known to fans as "Toni Doppelpack" – "Toni Brace" because of his tendency to score twice in a match.

Playing career

Polster came through the

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the most trophies of any Aust ...

youth system to make his professional league debut in August 1982, at 18 years of age. He scored his first Bundesliga goal three weeks later and went on to win three league titles and a domestic cup before moving abroad to play a season in

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

with

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. Polster then spent the five following years at Spanish teams

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

, Logroñés and

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in the Villa de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish foot ...

, ending up with these teams in mid-table as well except for one year, 1989–90, in which Sevilla FC ended in sixth place and played UEFA Cup the following year. In 1990, he finished runner-up in the Spanish goalscoring chart. In 1993, he moved to Germany to spend five years at

Köln Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, again ending up in mid-table every season except for the last one in which he experienced relegation. That made him join

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

next year but they got also relegated at the end of the season and Polster returned to Austria to play a final season at Austria Salzburg. Polster was chosen in Austria's Team of the Century in 2001 and as Austrian Sportsman of the Year in 1997. In 1983, Polster was selected for the Austria U20 to play at the

1983 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1983 FIFA World Youth Championship was the fourth edition FIFA World Youth Championship tournament, hosted from 2 June to 19 June 1983 in seven venues in Mexico — Guadalajara, Irapuato, León, Mexico City, Monterrey, Puebla and Toluca — w ...

. In November 1982, Polster debuted for the

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 a 4–0 victory against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, immediately scoring his first goal. He participated at the

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

World Cups. Polster earned 95 caps, scoring a record 44 goals. He overtook the previous goalscoring record, set by

Hans Krankl Johann "Hans" Krankl (; born 14 February 1953) is an Austrian former professional footballer. A prolific striker, he is regarded by many as one of Austria's greatest players. Club career Krankl started his professional career at Rapid Wien a ...

, in November 1996, scoring his 35th goal against

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. His final (and record-breaking 94th) international appearance was thought to be a

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

match against

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in June, but he was given an official farewell match in September 2000 against

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, in which he was substituted in the 21st minute by Christian Mayrleb. His appearances record was surpassed by Andreas Herzog in May 2002.

Coaching career

Polster began his coaching career in January 2010 as the reserve-team coach 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 ...

. In June 2011, he became the head coach of SC Wiener Viktoria in the Austrian 2. Landesliga, the fifth tier league in Austrian football. During his first season at Wiener Viktoria, the team promoted to the fourth tier and consequently one year afterwards to the

Austrian Regional League The Austrian Regionalliga ( or plural , means Regional League) is the third-highest division in Austrian football, after the Austrian Bundesliga and the Second League. It is divided into 3 groups: East (), covering the states of Vienna, Lower A ...

. On 17 June 2013, he accepted his first coaching role in the

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 ...

, taking over as the head coach of the top-flight side Admira Wacker Mödling. After starting the season with three straight defeats, including a 7–1 defeat to newly promoted Scholz Grödig, Polster was fired by Admira on 9 August 2013. Polster returned to SC Wiener Viktoria on 13 January 2014.

Personal life

Polster has two children named Anton and Lisa-Marie from his first marriage with Elisabeth Polster. The couple divorced in 2008 due to Polster's alleged relationship with other women. He got married for the second time to a woman named Birgit in 2018.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial

*1.Only 2010–11 season matches are included. Matches before 4 January 2010 – 6 August 2010 not included. *2.Only 2012–13 season matches are included. Matches from the 2011–12 season not included.

Honours

Austria Wien *

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 ...

: 1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86 *

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 ...

: 1985–86 Individual * Austrian Football Bundesliga Top scorer: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87 * Austrian Footballer of the Year: 1985–86, 1996–97 *

European Golden Shoe The European Golden Shoe, also known as the European Golden Boot, is an award that is presented each season to the player with the most points in league matches from the top division of a European national league. The trophy is a sculpture o ...

: 1986–87 *'' Kicker''

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

Team of the Season: 1993-94

References

External links

*
Toni Polster
at Austria Archive * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Polster, Toni 1964 births Living people Footballers from Vienna Men's association football forwards Austrian men's footballers Austria men's youth international footballers Austria men's international footballers Austrian Roman Catholics 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players FK Austria Wien players Torino FC players Sevilla FC players CD Logroñés footballers Rayo Vallecano players 1. FC Köln players Borussia Mönchengladbach players FC Red Bull Salzburg players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Serie A players La Liga players Bundesliga players Austrian football managers Admira Wacker managers Austrian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Germany 20th-century Austrian sportsmen