Helge Payer (born 9 August 1979) is an Austrian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He played for the Austria national team.

Club career

Payer came through the youth ranks at

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

to make his professional debut in the 2001–02 season, taking over the first-choice spot from Czech veteran

Ladislav Maier Ladislav Maier (born 4 January 1966 in Boskovice) is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played seven matches for the Czech Republic and participated at Euro 1996 and Euro 2000. At club level he took part in five ...

. In 2006, he was also named

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

. With Rapid, he won two league titles, also appearing five times in the

2005–06 UEFA Champions League The 2005–06 UEFA Champions League was the 51st season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League and the 14th since it was rebranded from the European Cup in 1992. 74 teams from 50 football associations took p ...

group stage. On 27 August 2009, he saved an

Ashley Young Ashley Simon Young (born 9 July 1985) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger or full-back for Premier League club Aston Villa, where he is club captain. Young started his career at Watford and made his first senior appea ...

penalty at

Villa Park Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway stations ...

in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

as Rapid Wien lost to

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

2–1. Rapid did, however, proceed to the next round via the away goals rule.

International career

Payer made his debut for

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

in a Euro 2004 qualifier in June 2003, against

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

, coming on as a late substitute for

Thomas Mandl Thomas Mandl (born February 7, 1979, in Eisenstadt) is an Austrian football goalkeeper, who currently plays for First Vienna in the Austrian Football First League. Club career He started his career at Austrian giants FK Austria Wien in 1997 whe ...

. After becoming a regular starter for the ''Nationalmannschaft'', Payer was included in the 23-man squad for in

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

, but was forced to pull out due to an intestinal thrombosis.

Career statistics

Honours

Rapid Wien *

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

: 2004-05, 2007-08

References

External links

* *
Rapid Wien stats
*
Austrian FA Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Payer, Helge 1979 births Living people People from Wels Footballers from Upper Austria Austrian footballers Association football goalkeepers Austria international footballers Austria youth international footballers Austrian Football Bundesliga players SK Rapid Wien players AEL Kalloni F.C. players Austrian expatriate footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate footballers in Greece