Andi Weimann earned his first Austria call-up for seven years undoubtedly because of his career-best year for Bristol City, but there may also be an element of superstition behind Franco Foda’s selection given the 30-year-old previous with the city of Cardiff.
International football may have felt increasingly further away as Weimann moved towards his 30s but his return to the national set-up will feel deeply close to home should he be involved in tonight’s World Cup qualifying play-off against Wales.
The Weimann family will only have to travel 50 miles down the road to the Cardiff City Stadium from Bristol, seven months after the striker’s brace in the Severnside Derby at the very same ground for the Robins in a 2-1 victory.
Austria take on Wales with the victors then earning a place in the qualifying final against Scotland or Ukraine and direct passage to World Cup 2022 in Qatar. We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves but it could prove the crowning glory on what is already proving to be an outrageously prolific campaign for Weimann.
“I was hoping for that (the call-up) a bit because I'm currently playing the best season of my life,” Weimann said this week. “At first I was a bit disappointed to only be there on standby, but I was even happier when the team boss called me on Saturday evening and told me that I was still there.
“I worked hard to get fit again and come back in good shape. Being in the national team now is like a bonus for me.
"We don't have a lot of training sessions before the game. But of course I want to show the coach what I can do and play, otherwise I wouldn't be here. Even if I'm substituted on, I'm fully there and I hope I can help."
He admitted to nerves this week and that returning to national duty felt, “like the first day at school” and how speaking German to his teammates he isn’t as fluent as he once was, given he only uses the language regularly to speak to his young sons.
“Seven to eight players” were familiar to him from his last appearance at this level - March 31, 2015 as he replaced Marcel Sabitzer in the closing stages of a friendly against Bosnia-Herzegovina - and such is the length of time that has elapsed, goalkeeper Robert Almer is now the goalkeeping coach. "You can see how long I was gone," he joked. “In the last five years, I haven't spoken German as often as I have in the last two days.
“It's been seven years. I was a little nervous, it was like the first day of school. But I was also well received by all the other players.”
Weimann, who is yet to score for his country in 14 previous caps, is competing with talisman Marco Arnautovic, Michael Gregoritsch of Augsburg and Stuttgart’s Sasa Kalajdzic, who has four goals in his last nine appearances for his country.
A start looks ambitious but he can certainly play a role off the bench, preferably in the central role which he has finally made his own - with the odd stint at right wing-back - for City.
Speaking from considerable experience, Weimann is also expecting a “witch’s cauldron” of an atmosphere inside the Cardiff City Stadium, where he’s been on the winning team in three visits with Derby County and Bristol City.
“There has been euphoria around the Welsh national team since the last two European Championships, so a witch's cauldron awaits us,” he added. “But I hope that we can survive there and progress.”
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