For all the prominence given to the ties between Vienna and Sofia in building their countries’ trade and historical ties, there is a less well-known aspect where Austria played a striking role in Bulgaria – football.

The fact that Swiss teacher George de Reggibuce brought the first football to the country in 1894 in Varna is well-known to most football fans in Bulgaria. Few, however, know that Bulgaria’s first international match was against Austria in 1924, when Bulgaria lost miserably, 6:0, at a match in Vienna’s Hoe Varte stadium.

The same year, Bulgaria made its debut in popular competition when it took part in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. More notably, Bulgaria’s first national coach was an Austrian, Leopold Nich. He was the first of four Austrian specialists to head Bulgaria’s national team. These were Willibold Scheiscal, who took over soon after Nich, followed by Carl Nemes (1930), Franc Koler (1940) and Rudolf Vytlacil (1965-65), who was an Austrian and Czechoslovakian football player and coach.

He was also the last foreigner to lead the team, putting an end to the tradition of using foreign experience in Bulgarian football. Besides the four Austrian football specialists, there were three Hungarians, two Czechs and a German who worked as national football coaches in Bulgaria.  

The choice of Austrians to head Bulgaria’s national team might be interesting today, but in the 1930s it was one of the best options. Football was still a young sport in Bulgaria, but not for Austria, which by that time had managed to establish itself as one of the dominant football nations in Europe. The team was known as the Wunderteam in the 1930s, when it was under the guidance of Hugo Meisl.

One of the team’s highlights during this time was the fourth place it took at the 1934 World Cup in Italy, which was the second World Cup competition. Sixty years later, Bulgaria also won bronze at the 1994 World Cup in the US. After World War 2, Austria kept its pace, which explains why Bulgaria chose Vytlacil in 1965.

Ten years earlier, Austria scored its best performance in World Cup competitions after coming third in the 1954 World Cup held in Switzerland.

In the last decade, however, both Bulgaria and Austria have failed to achieve major results on the international football stage, with Bulgaria ahead in the Fifa world rankings, at 23rd spot with Austria at 58th. Both failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after finishing third in their respective groups.