"Krone" column

Just don’t take a bath in the tub

ÖFB footballer Gernot Trauner plays for Feyenoord.(Bild: GEPA)

Salzburg play their fourth Champions League game of the season on Wednesday. The Bulls have to play away against Feyenoord Rotterdam. Gernot Trauner, a member of the Austrian national team, will play for the Dutch side. The club was once one of the biggest in the world, but its golden days are in the past. 

Champions Cup winner in 1970, World Cup triumphant in the same year. Twice winner of the UEFA Cup, 16 championships, 14 cup wins, five Supercup successes in the Netherlands.

Feyenoord Rotterdam is one of the greats in European soccer, even though the most successful times of the traditional club were several decades ago. Under coach Ernst Happel and with legend Franz Hasil on the pitch, "De club van het volk", or the people's club, was the strongest on the globe.

Brian Priske's squad, which also has an ÖFB national team player under contract in Gernot Trauner, is a long way off that today. Feyenoord are currently in fourth place in the Eredivisie, eight points behind league leaders PSV Eindhoven. In the Champions League, the Rotterdammers find themselves in 16th place, but - unlike Salzburg - already have two wins to their name.

The third is to follow on Wednesday at the legendary Feyenoord home stadium. The "De Kuip", which translates as "The Tub", has seen many big games. Rapids' 3-1 defeat to Everton in the 1985 European Cup final, the 2000 European Championship final between France and Italy (2:1 n. V.) and Feyenoord's 3:2 win over Dortmund in the 2002 UEFA Cup final. Now Salzburg wants to leave its mark - and not go for a swim in the tub.