Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer and manager (d. 1939)
Matthias Sindelar (German: [maˈtiːas ˈʃɪndəlaːɐ̯]; 10 February 1903 – 23 January 1939) was an Austrian professional footballer. Regarded as one of the greatest Austrian players of all-time, Sindelar played for Austria Wien and the Austrian national team.
He played as a centre-forward for the celebrated Austrian national side of the early 1930s that became known as the Wunderteam, which he captained at the 1934 World Cup. Known as "The Mozart of football" or Der Papierene ("The Paper Man") for his slight build, he was renowned as one of the finest pre-war footballers, known for his fantastic dribbling ability and creativity. He was voted the best Austrian footballer of the 20th Century in a 1999 poll by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) and was named Austria's sportsman of the century a year before.Matthias Sindelar was a forward. With the Wunderteam, he showed himself as one of the key elements of this formation, evolving in 2-3-5 . It gave, according to specialists like Paul Dietschy, "such fluidity to the Austrian system" that it was nicknamed the "Viennese whirlpool" . Although the Wunderteam regularly lacks efficiency, this lack is compensated by Sindelar, his technical skill and his vision of the game.