THE NOVEL OF THE WUNDERTEAM

II.: HUGO MEISL, THE MAGICIAN, THE POLYGLOT, THE GENIUS OF THE TEAM
Rudolf Hiden | 03/02/1939

Football in Vienna is the hobby of actresses, actors; the "movie stars" show themselves on the sports fields, as if they were great equestrian races. And our chip and elegant companions do not harm the success of Sunday meetings. Chaoun goes there to be part of the gratin.

Ticket prices go up. Snobbery — let's be honest — has taken hold of football in Austria. The musette ball had, in France, in Paris in particular, its hour of celebrity thanks to the stars of the theater and the cinema. In Vienna, it was football!

AUSTRIAN FOOTBALL FATHER HUGO MEISL

Willy Meisl, currently a journalist in England, was once the goalkeeper of the Austrian team. His brother, Hugo, is more than the host of Central European football, he would be entitled to claim paternity. Hugo Meisl, who did not witness the end of Austria, would not have survived it or so much he loved his work, so attached was he to the team, to his Wunderteam, his child. He lived only for it, he went to bed thinking about it, he woke up thinking about it. He only lived for it.

Hugo Meisl, living in Marxhof, in front of his Hohewarte stadium. The Marxhot was the socialist building which was bombed at a critical moment in the internal political history of Austria, a time which moreover preluded the assassination of Chancellor Dollfuss!

Hugo Meisl, child of the people, lived in the building built under the auspices of the workers' organizations.

Hugo Meisl spoke twelve or fifteen foreign languages. He himself never knew. It is to him that belongs the honor of having organized the Central European Cup, between Austria, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, Romania. A true international travel salesman, Hugo knew all of your corners from the capitals of Zagreb to Zurich via Prague and Pest!

No team's record held any secrets for Meisl. Whether it's Rapid Bucharest or Kladno, he could tell you the ranking.

He concludes meetings with England, with Turkey. In 1921 he took his team on a tour of the United States, exactly as if it were a theatrical exhibition concluded between directors of international tours.

Hugo Meisl was Austrian, but in reality he had no country. Everywhere he was at home. He had only to take out his business card, he was greeted everywhere with affability, with respect. He was the "General Secretary of the Austrian Football Association" to whom all doors opened.

Gifted with a booming voice, Hugo Meisl inspired respect in players, coaches, and the masses. Like a tribune, full of his subject, he discussed with the presidents of foreign federations with the tact, the tact and the finesse of an ambassador.

Whatever the international tension between two nations of Central Europe, Hugo Meisl put such delicacy into his discussions - the most difficult - that he managed to iron out all the discussions. He overcame all the arguments against his ideas, which were solely inspired by football. The round ball was his divinity!

And it is not without a certain emotion that I speak of Hugo Meisl. I will be excused for mentioning his name throughout these modest memories, memories that are part of my life, of my joy at having belonged to the Wunderteam — the team of fairy tales!

VIENNA AT NOON AND MIDNIGHT

On Sunday at noon, Vienna was the Vienna of football. Human clusters clung to the trams (there was no subway) that led to the stadiums. Not a seat. The gaiety, the bets... went well from the Fleschmarkt to the “Hohewarte” ground. Women, children, old people had their favorite. The Rapid, the W.A.C., the Florisdorfer had their partisans.

Uridil was opposed to Schaffer (this famous Schaffer, the Parisians saw him on the sidelines when Hungary played mathes for the III. World Cup, organized by France. In the time of brown amateurism, Schaffer was the great rival of Uridil, as to fame. Schaffer, a veritable pachyderm in 1938, was a slender player in 1924).

Each customer of the stadiums had his idol. Uridil and Schaffer shared the votes. These two lads, if they shared the favors of the Viennese men or women, earned a "crazy amount of money", while they were one hundred percent amateurs!

At midnight, Vienna had lost none of its enthusiasm for football. There was a sports daily, the Sporttagblatt quoted around 9 p.m. (the sports editions, so well done in the Parisian evening papers, did not exist in Austria) the sports results of the day. Everyone interested in football met in front of the "Sporttagblatt" at the Fleischmarkt. Players, kids, mature men, women, all found themselves on this place where we discussed. Sometimes punched. The police were called upon to separate those who were not of the same opinion...

It is thanks to this atmosphere so Viennese that the "Wunderteam" was born under the magic wand of the great conductor Hugo Meisl. And the "Wunderteam" is the sport of the round ball practiced by its most magical teams, that of the country where I was born, VIENNA.