One year after the end – SVM support staff: From New York to Hütteldorf

A full season in the Bundesliga has already been completed without SV Mattersburg. And yet it was only a little over a year ago when the commercial banking scandal surrounding director and SVM president Martin Pucher came to light in mid-July. Burgenland’s former football figurehead has been history since August 2020, the authorities are still investigating the Commerzialbank case on an ongoing basis. For all those who were still active in the sporting field for the long-standing Bundesliga club at the time of the end and shortly before that, the professional wheel has long since turned – not only with the players, but also with the former support staff. The spectrum of the new tasks ranges from the continuation of previous activities at other associations to completely new areas of responsibility.

Franz Ponweiser. He was a trainer and sports director until July 2020, before the Neutaler finally accepted a new professional challenge at the Austrian Football Association. Since then he has been working as part of the ÖFB trainer training. But not only that. Tasks like observing opponents for the national team also fall within the 45-year-old’s area of ​​competence. For example, he was on the road for Franco Foda’s team at the EURO and also examined Austria’s opponent Italy in the round of 16.

Markus Schmidt. Franz Ponweiser’s assistant coach has been active in the Burgenland League as head coach since the end of September 2020, where he is responsible for the sporting agendas at FSG Oberpetersdorf / Schwarzenbach. In the new season, Schmidt (43) will be able to move into calmer table regions with the game community, which has recently been involved in relegation battle.

Bernd Eibler. For the former SVM video analyst and co-trainer from Sigleß, working as an assistant trainer at the New York Red Bulls opened up a particularly exciting professional field. At the side of head coach Gerhard Struber, the 27-year-old works in the east of the USA, where he looks after the Red Bull professionals in the North American Major League Soccer (MLS).

Roland Gerdenitsch. The 42-year-old, who was engaged as the goalkeeper coach of the Green-Whites at the time of the SVM-Aus, followed Markus Schmidt to the football and sports community Oberpetersdorf / Schwarzenbach, or FSG for short. Gerdenitsch is co-trainer there – but of course also responsible for the final people.

Gerald Linshalm. Still active as a pure athletics supervisor at SV Mattersburg, the 40-year-old from Wiener Neustadt has now fully turned to coaching after a season as an athletics and assistant coach at Wiener Austria under Peter Stöger. Linshalm is employed by the FAC in the 2nd division as Mitja Mörec’s assistant coach and is also aiming for the A license.

Gerald Popovits. Since the SVM has been in the professional business, the native of Olbendorfer has been available season after season as a masseur. In the meantime, however, the 48-year-old has completely reoriented himself and is completing a distance learning degree at the Academy for Sport, Health and Management – “International Sports Management”. Parallel to his training, Popovits has also been working for Admira Wacker in the office for 20 hours since June. “It’s been very good to me so far,” says the hobby dart player who lives in Mattersburg, appreciating his varied new job, which is far from a monotonous office job. “Up until now I have been able to get a taste of different areas, from team management support to Covid measures to social media support.” The activity as a masseur is therefore suspended. “I’m at an age where I can still do something new. That’s why I decided to do it. “

Martin Ivanschitz. The former SVM team doctor works in the hospital of the Barmherzige Brüder Eisenstadt as a trauma surgeon and sports medicine specialist in the department for orthopedics and traumatology, the 45-year-old also runs an elective doctor’s office at the VIVA state sports center in Steinbrunn and optionally also helps out as a doctor for the junior national teams.

Michael Karner, Franz Seba. The ex-SVM physiotherapist Karner and the orthopedist and traumatologist Seba (he also works at the Eisenstadt hospital) are now working together in Mattersburg. Ortho-Trauma-Med is the name of the former SVM team doctor Seba’s ordination for orthopedics and traumatology and Karner’s practice for (sports) physiotherapy and rehabilitation.

Dragisa Vukadinovic. For what felt like an eternity at SV Mattersburg, he was the man for the jerseys and all the work materials for the professionals as the kit manager. Subsequently, he was also responsible for ensuring that everything was in order in the Poplar Stadium. In the meantime, the 54-year-old, who is always simply called “Gile”, is under contract with the most popular club in Austria – SK Rapid Wien – in the professional department of head coach Didi Kühbauer. The field of activity is well known, only the name has been modernized. The SVM’s kit manager became Rapid’s utensil manager.

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