"Cautious guy"

How Alaba learned to ski on the Hochkar

The documentary "ComeBlack" will be shown on ORF eins at 8.15 pm on Friday, highlighting the hard road back for Marco Schwarz and David Alaba after their cruciate ligament ruptures. Before that, the "Krone" reveals how the soccer superstar contracted the ski virus on the Hochkar in 2005.

David Alaba was in the mountains on the Hochkar for the first time in 2005 as a pupil at the Wittelsbachstraße sports middle school, which is located in Vienna's second district very close to the Prater. His sports teacher at the time, Bernhard Neuwirth, remembers: "David was quite nervous at the time. He was more of a cautious type by nature and had great respect for the challenge of skiing."

Already on the second day on the red slope
As a lateral entrant, the then Austria youth player enjoyed the individual training with Neuwirth together with a second footballer who was skiing for the first time. The teacher, who led the class's ski course with "boss" Georg Stanzl, recounts: "In the morning we were on the Ubüngslift. In the afternoon, we were already skiing on a blue slope. On the second day, David was already skiing parts of a red slope. He learned to ski quickly and was very skillful."

Used to staying with Thomas Sykora's parents
Back then, the pupils stayed at the Hochkar in the local federal sports home, which was run by the parents of former slalom star and current ORF expert Thomas Sykora. David's classmate Christoph Knasmüllner was an outstanding skier. Neuwirth says of the ex-Rapidler and current Wieczysta Krakow player: "Knasi was a genius. He was the best athlete I've ever seen. He could do everything, was incredibly polyathletic. Knasi was certainly more talented than Alaba, but unlike David, he didn't make the most of his abilities."

David has always had close ties to skiing since the course and was a regular guest at the Hahnenkamm weekend in Kitzbühel.

He also met Marcel Hirscher and Anna Veith, then still Fenninger, several times. The 31-year-old smiles: "As an Austrian, you are simply interested in skiing."