Football icon Guido Burgstaller says goodbye with emotions!

Football icon Guido Burgstaller says goodbye with emotions!

Wien, Österreich - Guido Burgstaller ended his career as a football player at the age of 36. The striker announced his end of his career in an emotional video message. Burgstaller, who comes from Carinthia, began his professional career 19 years ago and played in various leagues and for various clubs during this time. He was active for Rapid Vienna, SC Wiener Neustadt and FC Schalke 04.

Over his entire career, Burgstaller completed almost 600 missions in national and international competitions and scored 183 goals. At Rapid Vienna, his last club, he came to 214 games in which he scored 73 goals and gave 42 templates. Sports director Markus Katzer found that Burgstaller was already persuaded to play another year last year. For the coming time, Katzer is planning to keep Burgstaller in another function in the club.

a loss for Rapid Vienna

neo-trainer Peter Stöger commented concerns about the loss of Burgstaller. He described this as a "difficult challenge" and emphasized that extraordinary people like Burgstaller were difficult to replace in football. Stöger wants to make Rapid more flexible and is optimistic that a functioning solution will be found for the future. Responsibility for the loss should be distributed to several players without overwhelming them.

In his time at Rapid, Burgstaller was elected “Rapidler of the Year” three times in a row (2022, 2023 and 2024) and was the first team captain in the 2023/24 season. At his own request, he passed on the loop loop to Matthias Seidl. He scored his last goal in the 2-1 away win in the 346th Wiener derby, which was particularly emotional for him after a serious head injury.

all-round talent and team player

The sporting success of Burgstaller are undeniable. In a total of 210 competitive games for Rapid, he scored 70 goals and made a decisive contribution to the success of the club in the Bundesliga and in the European Cup. Despite his individual successes, Burgstaller was always a team player and attached great importance to cohesion within the team.

FC St. Pauli, for which Burgstaller played from 2019 to 2022, regularly emphasized its dependence on a solid mental basis in the game. Due to the challenges in professional football, the importance of sports psychological support is becoming increasingly clear, which aims to increase both individual and team performance. Many Bundesliga clubs still seem to have deficits because sports psychologists are not fully occupied.

The future for Guido Burgstaller will be exciting despite the career end, since it could continue to take on a role in football and possibly at Rapid Vienna. The qualification games for the UEFA Conference League on July 24th and 31st are already around the corner, and Rapid will try to master the challenge caused by the Burgstaller's departure.

Laola1 reports that Burgstaller with his 73 goals in 214 games for Rapid Wien an important footnote in club history leaves. SK Rapid emphasizes that his departure will have both sporting and emotional consequences for the team. The sports psychologists offer an important view of the mental strength in the context of football, which also played a decisive role in Burgstaller's career.