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Austria's national team: Ralf Rangnick presents the first World Cup qualifying squad!
Austria's national team will start the 2026 World Cup qualification against Romania on June 7, 2025. Team boss Rangnick presents his squad.
Austria's national team: Ralf Rangnick presents the first World Cup qualifying squad!
The starting signal for the 2026 World Cup qualification has been fired. On June 7, 2025, the Austrian national team will host Romania in the sold-out Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna. This is seen as a key game as Austria have not taken part in a World Cup since 1998 and are now looking to realize their dream of returning under team boss Ralf Rangnick. The qualifiers are the first step on this path, which is why the focus is on a strong performance. The next match is against San Marino away on June 10th, with the aim of clearing qualifying group H and securing one of the top two places.
Austria is in qualifying group H, which includes Romanian, Bosnian and Cypriot competition as well as San Marino. The ÖFB is considered the clear favorite, even if the opponents, especially Romania and Bosnia-Herzegovina, can be quite unpleasant. Austria was drawn from pot 1 and wants to aim for group victory in order to qualify directly for the World Cup. Otherwise, the second place in the group would have to fight for the remaining starting places in the playoffs.
Squad and preparation
In the last few days, Ralf Rangnick announced his first squad for the World Cup qualification. This includes the following players:
| position | player |
|---|---|
| goal | Nicolas Schmid, Nikolas Polster, Patrick Pentz |
| Defence | Marco Friedl, Philipp Lienhart, Phillipp Mwene, Stefan Posch, Leopold Querfeld, Gernot Trauner, Nikolas Veratschnig, Maximilian Wöber |
| midfield | Florian Grillitsch, Konrad Laimer, Marcel Sabitzer, Xaver Schlager, Romano Schmid, Nicolas Seiwald |
| attack | Marko Arnautovic, Thierno Ballo, Christoph Baumgartner, Raul Florucz, Michael Gregoritsch, Marco Grüll, Mathias Honsak, Patrick Wimmer |
It should be noted that three of the four goalkeepers, Nicolas Schmid, Nikolas Polster and Tobias Lawal, have not yet played for the senior team. In addition to Alexander Schlager, who is out due to injury, David Alaba and several other players such as Sasa Kalajdzic and Michael Svoboda are also missing. There are plenty of potential additions on tap that could help in the short term.
History and goals
The last 25 years have been marked by failures in the World Cup qualifying rounds for the Austrian national team. The ÖFB team failed six times in a row. Now the team has the chance to stop the trend and qualify for a World Cup finals again. Austria's last appearance at a World Cup was in 1998 and the anticipation is palpable in the football community. Rangnick, who has already given positive impetus as team boss, will head to games against Cyprus and Bosnia-Herzegovina on September 6, 2025 and September 9, 2025, before the return games in October and November. The path to qualification requires, above all, stability and the development of the team's individual and collective potential.
Preparations for the decisive games begin on May 30th in Seefeld. After a successful Nations League phase, which brought a win against Norway and a draw against Slovenia, players and coaches are optimistic about the games that will determine the direct possibility of a World Cup. In the long term, the team hopes for the comeback of David Alaba, who could return to the European Championships in 2024 after his injury.
oe24.at reports about the squad and the preparation during meine.at provides more detailed information about the training conditions. Further details about the group draw and the history of the ÖFB team are available fussball-wm.pro to view.