They had been missed in the Bundesliga for more than 20 years, and since this year Lustenauer Austria has been back in the top tier of Austria’s club football. A not insignificant piece of the jigsaw puzzle for this comeback was coach Markus Mader, a man for whom it had never been enough to get bigger as an active player. The fact that the 54-year-old is allowed to work in the Bundesliga today is not a matter of course for him …
“I didn’t have any help, nobody supported me and I don’t have a big name either,” said Mader on “Talk and Goals” on “Sky Sport Austria”. He couldn’t look back on a great career as a footballer, wasn’t a national player or an international player x times, “I worked everything out for myself!” For many years he never quite knew what to answer when he was asked what is his dream job. Those times would be over now, because: “Now for the first time I can say: ‘Yes, this is my dream job!’ Because I was able to turn my great hobby, which I have pursued all my life as an active player, into a career as a coach.” Mader is absolutely aware that as a coach in the Bundesliga you may not have a particularly crisis-proof job. But: “It doesn’t matter which club I was with – six or seven years ago I was still in the 5th division – I enjoyed that too. That has never changed – and I hope that it will remain so for a long time to come…”
source site-12