Austria has qualified for the World Cup in 2026 for the first time since 1998 and brings with it Ralf Rangnick, one of the most innovative managers of the modern era. Euro 2024 provided impressive proof of this: Austria won a tough group featuring France, the Netherlands and Poland. In 2026, this momentum is set to carry over to the World Cup stage. Group J, featuring defending champions Argentina, is a huge challenge – but Austria haven’t come here just to make up the numbers.

Head coach Ralf Rangnick has named three goalkeepers for the Austrian national team: Alexander Schlager, Patrick Pentz and Florian Wiegele. Austria is taking part in a World Cup for the first time since 1998 – a historic moment for Austrian football, 28 years after its last attempt.

Schlager, aged 30 and born in Salzburg, has been the undisputed first-choice goalkeeper for the Austrian national team for years. It has been a long journey to get there: After years on loan and as a keeper at Floridsdorfer AC and FAC Vienna, he established himself at LASK between 2017 and 2023 as one of the most consistent goalkeepers in the Austrian Bundesliga – featuring in the Europa League and captaining the Linz side. Since the summer of 2023, he has been back at Red Bull Salzburg, where his career once began, on a contract until 2027. In the ÖFB squad, he has 24 international caps to his name, started every match in the World Cup qualifiers and is Rangnick’s clear first choice. A wrist injury recently sidelined him for several weeks – but he was back in training and fit in time for the World Cup squad announcement.

Schlager embodies everything Rangnick’s system needs: active involvement in build-up play, composure under pressure, and leadership qualities. Austria face Argentina, Algeria and Jordan in Group J – and Schlager will have to be the bedrock in goal.

Pentz, 29 years old and also born in Salzburg, is the son of Werner Pentz, the long-serving goalkeeping coach of the Austrian U17 team. His career took him from FK Austria Wien via Stade de Reims and Bayer 04 Leverkusen – where he did not play a single competitive match behind Lukáš Hrádecký – to Brøndby IF in the Danish Superliga, where he was initially signed on loan in August 2023, before signing a permanent contract in the summer of 2024. He has been the first-choice goalkeeper for the Danes this season. With 17 international caps, he brings almost as much international experience as Schlager and was part of the Austrian squad at EURO 2024 in Germany, where he experienced the magical evening match against Poland. As the clear number two, he is Rangnick’s most reliable backup.

Wiegele, aged 25 and from Graz, stands at 2.05 metres tall, making him the tallest goalkeeper ever to wear an ÖFB shirt – he even towers over Stefan Maierhofer and Saša Kalajdzić. His rise to prominence has been completely off the beaten track: the Landesliga with Lebring, the Regionalliga with Gleisdorf, his second-division debut with DSV Leoben, then the move to Czech first-division side Viktoria Plzeň. There, from November 2025, he displaced the previous first-choice keeper from the starting line-up and established himself as number one – featuring in the Europa League against FC Porto and SC Freiburg, among others. In March 2026, he made his debut for Schlager in the second half of the 5-1 win against Ghana and made a confident impression. Rangnick praised his “exciting profile” – by which he meant, above all, his height, his presence at set pieces and his solid footballing ability. Wiegele extended his contract in Plzeň in April 2026 until 2029.