2023-05-31 06:31:19
Leonhard Thalhammer died eleven years ago playing football in his own garden. In memory of him, teams from all over Austria meet in Anif on the Pentecost weekend.
20 young football teams from all over Austria and Bavaria, 200 children, a total of around 500 people every day at the USK sports facility in Anif. For three days, the Pentecost weekend was dedicated to the 11th Leonhard Thalhammer commemorative tournament.
The U10s played on Saturday, the U9s on Sunday and the U8 teams competed against each other on Whit Monday. “This is our biggest event of the year. The teams come from Salzburg, Tyrol, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Carinthia and Styria, from Bavaria and one even from Neu-Ulm,” said Christian Fuchs from USK Anif. He is the man who pulls all the organizational strings together. The people of Graz had to cover the longest distance, the young GAK squad competed in the U10 as the defending champions and were able to win again. Even if the focus was on enjoying the sport, the background to this commemorative tournament is a tragic one: while playing football in his own garden, football fanatic Leonhard Thalhammer gets a football in his stomach, falls over and dies in the hospital. That was eleven years ago.
“The then USK President Franz Stiller-Hohla and my predecessor Hans Krüger then had the idea for this memorial tournament – so that the boy is not forgotten. And that’s how it happened now,” said Anif’s mayor Gabriella Gehmacher-Leitner in view of the importance of the tournament today junior tournament from a very nice idea.
The parents of the kickers were also divided. They improved the club’s coffers by selling Bosna, cake and drinks. “We divide the proceeds by three and each coach decides what he can do to make the players in his age group happy. This year we’re going to the Bodensee Cup with the U10s,” Fuchs says happily.
At the U9 tournament on Sunday, SKN St. Pölten won ahead of the Red Bull Salzburg, Landshut and St. Johann im Pongau team. The home team Anif white took fifth place.
From the host’s point of view, the U8 provided the sporting highlight on Monday. Without conceding a single goal in the entire tournament, the home team won the tournament for the first time. In the final, they won the 7-meter shoot-out against FC Lendorf from Carinthia. Third was the formation of LASK. With Lukas Leitner and Gabriel Heidenreich, two USK Anif players were also elected to the All Star Team.
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