Football history was rewritten in 2052 as Trebor Mahtal and his all-star FC København side became the first Scandinavian team to become Champions of Europe. Mahtal was given one hell of a party by his Danish supporters and his former fans at Crvena zvezda, who partied long into the night on the streets of Belgrade.
But, as per standard, Mahtal left the club on a high and went in search of the 19th club on his EuroTrip adventure. His impressive ability to land on his feet continued as long-serving RB Salzburg boss Xabi Alonso retired at the age of 70 after 14 years at the club. Mahtal applied, quickly attended an interview and was swiftly offered the job. So for the first time in his career, Mahtal was heading to Austria.
Who Are RB Salzburg?
Fußballclub Red Bull Salzburg is a professional club based in Wals-Siezenheim, a municipality in the district of Salzburg-Umgebung. The club wad founded in 1933 as SV Austria Salzburg before being purchased by the drinks company Red Bull GmbH in 2005. Red Bull, in its infinite modest manner, changed the club’s name and colours, from violet and white to red and white, which saw some fans form a a new club with the original name.
The Red Bull switch was successful as the club won its first Austrian Bundesliga and reached the UEFA Cup Final in 1994. It won 14 more titles, including 10 in a row, up to 2023 and carried that into this save, winning 23 more in 28 seasons. Mahtal decided to come to Salzburg because he wanted to win the Austrian title and because Salzburg was the only club available ranked higher than his previous club in the European coefficients – now ranked 17th in Europe, above RB Leipzig in 41st.
He comes into a club with £68m in the bank and a £31m transfer budget. It now plays at the 40,485-capacity Ângelo Arena, named presumably after the winger who became a legend in six years at the club, which was built in 2046. It also has superb facilities of 20 youth recruitment and junior coaching and 18 training and youth facilities. However, the club was massively overspending on wages, so Mahtal wasted no time selling some of the overearners for £62m and £550k off the wage budget.
The best player remaining was midfielder Eduardo Pozzo along with centre back Sverre Olav Bøifot, winger Aaron Farinet, full backs Leonardo Jofre and Liam Vanneste, striker Milan Lavicka, centre back Joris Kamphuis and 16-time capped Brazilian holding midfielder Leandro. They also had a couple of good prospects in goalkeeper Yuri Britto and right back Miguel Cejudo. Mahtal added to that by returning to København to snap up his winger Sebastián Villarroel for £32.5m, who became the best player at the club and Mahtal’s biggest-ever signing. He also brought in goalkeeper Mickaël Planche for up to £17.5m from Club Brugge and then signed his former Farul striker Hamid Mezgour on loan from Liverpool. In January, he added Liberian wonderkid striker Emmanuel Neewon for £7.7m from Baník Ostrava and the club’s academy product winger Marcel Lemke on loan from Bayern.
Having assessed the squad, Mahtal went to one of his preferred tactics, a 4-2-4 with a holding midfielder that got the best out of wide boys Farinet and Villarroel.
Getting Started In Austria
Salzburg are 3/10 favourites to be Austrian champions ahead of Austria Wien (6/1), SK Rapid (11/1) and SK Sturm and LASK (50/1). And all but one of their players (one SK Rapid centre back being the outlier) formed the media’s dream 11. So this should be the easiest success of Mahtal’s career.
Mahtal’s reign began with a bang as Lavicka scored from two Cejudo crosses to down Oedt 4-0 and Mezgour’s brace led a 3-0 win at SV Ried. But they stepped it up a notch by obliterating Union Vöcklamarkt 9-0 with seven different scorers, braces for Lavicka and Mezgour and assist hat tricks for Farinet and Villarroel. They came down to earth with a 0-0 at Austria Wien, who amusingly missed two penalties. A run of five games without conceding ended at SK Rapid, but Mezgour scored two and created the other for Lavicka in a 3-2 victory, before a rotated side lost for the first time 3-1 at SK Sturm.
Lavicka and Pozzo got them back on track by defeating Altach 2-0 before Lebanese/Colombian striker Mohammad Taleb scored the only goal at LASK. They made a statement by putting three first-half goals past Austria Wien in late November then a brilliant curled Villarroel effort and Lavicka’s penalty downed SK Rapid on 6 December. That took Salzburg 8 points clear of LASK at the top, and was their final league game for more than two months.
The league eventually resumed on 15 February and Salzburg resumed where they left off with a 3-0 win at Linz. They also won the following four games 3-0 to finish the regular season 15 points clear heading into the 10-game Championship Group. At this point, Salzburg had only conceded 6 goals in 22 games but the points totals amassed so far were halved.
The trend continued as they went to SK Rapid and Farinet’s brace led a 3-0 success then beat 3rd-place Admira 3-0 with goals by Villarroel, Farinet and Mezgour – that’s seven successive 3-0 wins and a new league record 12 straight clean sheets! Those streaks ended but the relentless form continued as Lavicka’s doubled led a 3-2 win over 2nd-place LASK, opening up a 13-point lead with seven games remaining. Pozzo stepped up with an assist hat trick as they crushed Austria Wien 4-1 and Farinet scored a second-half brace in a 4-0 thrashing of Altach. That gave them the chance to wrap up the title with a point at Admira. The game confirmed Salzburg’s dominance as they prevented the league’s 3rd-best team from having a shot until the final minute but somehow only won 1-0. RB Salzburg were Champions of Austria!
Salzburg went on to win the Austrian Bundesliga by a huge 16 points, finishing on 57 after 28 wins, 3 draws and just 1 defeat (which was 87 points in total). They scored 85 and only conceded 12 times. Lavicka led the league with 26 goals in 28 games followed by Mezgour with 19 in 30, Farinet topped the assists chart with 19 followed by Villarrroel with 12, and Britto got a ludicrous 25 clean sheets.
Mahtal’s Champions League Defence
Mahtal had an opportunity to defend last season’s famous Champions League success as Salzburg went straight into the league phase. But realistically, they weren’t going to win it, especially as a lack of homegrown players meant he could only register 17 first teamers. But they started well with a 2-1 win at home to Trabzonspor and a 0-0 at Liverpool, which they should have won before the hosts injured their own player Mezgour. He then opened the scoring at home to Porto before Lavicka wrapped up a 2-0 victory from the penalty spot.
Salzburg continued to perform beyond Mahtal’s expectations as Lavicka, Farinet and Mezgour inspired a dominant 3-0 win at home to Nice. Mezgour’s late goal nicked a 1-1 at Juventus, before a 0-0 at home to Napoli left them still unbeaten and in 8th place heading into the winter. They returned with a wild 4-3 win at Villarreal thanks to late Mezgour and Pozzo goals before losing 4-2 at Lyon, which dropped them to 9th on goal difference.
Salzburg had both centre backs suspended as they travelled to Marseille in the playoff round. But Mezgour’s brace edged a 3-2 victory before Lavicka earned a 1-0 home win. Elsewhere, holders København were disappointingly knocked out 4-1 by Milan. And Salzburg followed them out of the competition with a 3-0 aggregate loss to Liverpool in the last 16.
Another Easy League Title Success
Salzburg were clearly far too good for the Austrian league and deservedly strolled to yet another title. Lavicka was the club’s top scorer with 32 in 41 followed by Mezgour (27), Farinet (12) and Villarroel (10), while Farinet led the assists with 22 followed by Villarroel (15), Pozzo (14), Mezgour (10) and Cejudo (8).
After one season in Austria, Mahtal had achieved his goal and was very much looking forward to a bit more of a challenge. So a few days after wrapping up the title, Mahtal resigned and began his search for the 20th club on his EuroTrip adventure. He departs Salzburg with his best win ratio yet of 80% after 327 days and 50 games, of which he won 40, drew 6 and lost 4, scoring 122 and conceding just 30.
Where would he end up after his Austrian success? Join us on Monday to find out!
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