Thomas Flögel (born 7 June 1971) is an Austrian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former player.

Club career

Born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and the son of former

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English, is an Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the f ...

player Rudi Flögel, Flögel began his career with their local rivals

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the most trophies of any Aust ...

. He made his first-team break-through in 1990 and spent the next seven seasons at the

Franz Horr Stadium The Franz Horr Stadium, formally known as Generali Arena for sponsorship reasons and Viola Park for international matches, is an association football stadium in the south of Vienna, Austria. It has been the home ground of FK Austria Wien since ...

. During this time, the ''Violets'' won three consecutive League titles (1991–93) and the

Austrian Cup The Austrian 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 a record 27th time. Wo ...

in 1992 and 1994. However, after a lean spell in the mid-1990s, during which FK Austria were over-shadowed by SV Salzburg, Flögel decided to try playing abroad, eventually signing for

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

side Heart of Midlothian in 1997, after a trial with

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

Heart of Midlothian

Flögel enjoyed instant success with the

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

club, helping them end a 36-year trophy drought by winning the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

. Although initially considered a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

, Flögel displayed great versatility during his time with Hearts, and played in every outfield position during a five season-spell at Tynecastle.

Back in Austria

In 2002, Flögel returned to former club FK Austria, who were buoyed by significant investment from billionaire

Frank Stronach Frank Stronach (born 6 September 1932) is an Austro-Canadian billionaire businessman and politician. He is the founder of Magna International, an international automotive parts company based in Aurora, Ontario, Canada, Granite Real Estate ...

, and won the Double in his first season back in Vienna. FK Austria's new financial clout ensured fierce competition for first-team places though, and after struggling to maintain his place in the team in 2004, Flögel moved to

SV Pasching SV, Sv, sv, etc. may refer to: Places and language * El Salvador, ISO 3166-1 country code SV * Province of Savona, (vehicle registration plate code), Italy * South Vietnam, an extinct state * Svalbard, Norway, FIPS country code SV * Swedish langu ...

. Flögel wound down his career with season-long spells with Pasching (2004–05) and

VfB Admira Wacker Mödling Admira Wacker is an Austrian professional football club based in Maria Enzersdorf, a town in the Mödling District of Lower Austria. The team competes in the 2. Liga, the second tier of the Austrian football league system. The club was forme ...

(2005–06). He had intended to spend a final year playing for First Vienna, however a serious

shoulder The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder m ...

injury in only his third game for the side forced his retirement. On 4 September 2006, he was announced as First Vienna's new sporting director.

International career

Flögel achieved international recognition while playing for Austria Wien, making his

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

debut in a 4–0 win over

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

in 1992. After being left in the international wilderness for five years (from 1995–2000), his consistent form with Hearts earned him a recall to the Austria national side and he increased his cap tally to 37, in which time he scored three goals.

External links

*
Appearances
at londonhearts.com
Profile
at Austria-archiv.at * {{DEFAULTSORT:Flogel, Thomas 1971 births Living people Austrian men's footballers Footballers from Vienna Men's association football midfielders Austria men's international footballers Austrian Football Bundesliga players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players FK Austria Wien players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Admira Wacker players First Vienna FC players Austrian football managers Floridsdorfer AC managers Austrian expatriate men's footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland