Forward coach blows his kickers the march – with a trumpet

Daniel Madeler is definitely not a coach like everyone else – his kickers from the second division soccer team have meanwhile also done that SK forward Steyr noticed. Before today’s so important home game of the tail light in the 2nd football league against the Young Violets (6:10 p.m., ORF Sport+), the 58-year-old once again grabbed his bag of tricks: During a cabin speech during this training week, Madlener said to his team, alluding to the importance of today’s direct duel against the second division penultimate from Vienna: “Another coach would blow the march for you in this situation.” Whereupon Madlener left the room and returned shortly afterwards – with him: a trumpet, with which he symbolically blew the march for his kickers.

It wasn’t the first unconventional measure with which he tried to encourage his team: Madlener had already disguised himself as a chef during his coaching career and served his protégés the ingredients they need for victory. Shortly after he started in Steyr in 2021, the man from Vorarlberg took a computer keyboard into the dressing room. Each player had to press the “delete button” to forget the previous unsuccessful weeks. Once he even offered his kickers a sip from a whiskey bottle before a game to overcome their fear of the opponent.

This time he became a musician – instead of making notes, his team should hit the goal today. “It’s a first final game in which we have to put our conviction and energy back on the pitch,” says Madlener, who was recently suspended Alberto Prada and the battered one Sven Sprangler can fall back on.