Michael Konsel (born 6 March 1962) 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, rugb ...

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 ...

Club career

Born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Konsel started his professional career with

First Vienna First Vienna FC is an Austrian association football club based in the Döbling district of Vienna. Established on 22 August 1894, it is the country's oldest team and has played a notable role in the history of the game there. It is familiarly k ...

and moved to local rivals

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, ...

in 1985. He then played a part in the successful Rapid team in the 1980s, claiming the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

crown twice and most prominently losing the

UEFA Cup Winners Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

3–1 against Everton in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte (river), Rotte'') is the second largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the Prov ...

in 1985. He stayed at Rapid for 12 years and captained the side in his last two seasons. In

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

, he played in the

Final for a second time, this time against

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, which Rapid lost again, this time by a score of 1–0. In 1997, at 35 years of age, Konsel moved abroad to join Italian side A.S. Roma in

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

under manager

Zdeněk Zeman Zdeněk Zeman (; born 12 May 1947) is a Czech-Italian football coach. Known for his exciting, offensive footballing tactics and use of the 4–3–3 formation, Zeman has managed numerous teams over the years, mostly in Italian football. He has ...

; although he was initially not well-known in Italy, his impressive performances led him to be voted the best goalkeeper and best foreign footballer of the season in his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. A ...

with the club. After an injury-plagued second season in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

he finished his career at

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

, where he remained for a season. In 1996, he was chosen

Austrian Footballer of the Year The Austrian Footballer of the Year award (german: APA-Fußballerwahl) is an annual football award, established in Austria in 1984 and sponsored by the Austria Press Agency (APA). The coaches of all Austrian Football Bundesliga clubs vote to elect t ...

. He was voted in Rapid's Team of the Century in 1999, as well as in the A.S. Roma All Star Team of all-time in 1998.

International career

Konsel 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 an October 1985 friendly match against

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

, and was a participant at the

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

and

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for t ...

, serving as a back-up to Klaus Lindenberger in the former edition of the tournament. He earned 43 caps at international level in total (no goals scored). His international farewell match was an August 1998 friendly against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, in which game he was substituted by his eternal rival for Austria's first goalkeeper jersey, Franz Wohlfahrt.

Style of play

Considered to be one of the greatest Austrian goalkeepers of all time (having been elected the third-best Austrian Goalkeeper of the 20th Century), as well as one of the best Serie A goalkeepers of his generation, one of the best European keepers of the 90s, and one of Roma's best ever goalkeepers, Konsel was a consistent and efficient goalkeeper, who stood out for his shot-stopping ability and longevity throughout his career. Nicknamed the ''

panther Panther may refer to: Large cats * Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis'' **'' Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards. *** Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in S ...

'', he possessed good reflexes and, having played both as

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

and defender in his youth, was also known for his elegance and ability with the ball at his feet, as well as his speed and adeptness when coming off his line to collect crosses or when rushing out to anticipate opponents, and often functioned as a sweeper-keeper throughout his career, in particular in teams which relied on a high defensive line, the offside-trap, and

zonal marking In association football, marking is an organized defensive tactic which aims to prevent a member of the opposing team (usually a striker) from taking control of the ball. Several marking strategies exist in football, and they mostly differ from ...

systems. One of his main influences as a goalkeeper was

Dino Zoff Dino Zoff (; born 28 February 1942) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is the oldest ever winner of the World Cup, which he earned as captain of the Italian national team in the 1982 tournament, at th ...

Media appearances

Konsel participated in the third season of the Austrian television dance competition '' Dancing Stars'' in 2007, coming in seventh place.

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 ...

: 1986–87, 1987–88, 1995–96 *

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th ti ...

: 1984–85, 1986–87, 1994–95 *

Austrian Supercup The Austrian Supercup (German: ÖFB-Supercup) was a football competition held annually from 1986 until 2004 between the winners of the Austrian Football Bundesliga and the Austrian Cup. 19 editions were played during the short history of the comp ...

: 1986, 1987, 1988 Individual *Best Young Player of the Austrian Bundesliga: 1985 *

: 1987, 1995, 1996 *Austrian Bundesliga Best Goalkeeper of the Year: 1987–88, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97 *Rapid Wien's Team of the Century: 1999 *A.S. Roma All-time All-Star Team: 1998

External links

Official web site
– Konsel

– Rapid Archive *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konsel, Michael 1962 births Living people Austrian men's footballers Footballers from Vienna Men's association football goalkeepers Austria men's international footballers 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Serie A players First Vienna FC players SK Rapid Wien players AS Roma players Venezia FC players Austrian expatriate men's footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy