Patrick Wimmer’s path to Euro 2024 is unlike any other player’s at the tournament. The Austrian could become a well-known name by the end of it, as Ralf Rangnick’s impressive side look to make a splash in England’s half of the knockout draw.
Das Team, who finished top of Group D ahead of France and Holland, will be in the quarter-finals if they beat Turkey on Tuesday. And Wimmer is likely to play some part, having featured in all three of his nation’s games since landing in Germany.
Just a few years ago, the prospect of preparing for a major tournament knockout showdown would have been unthinkable to Wimmer, who has no academy pedigree whatsoever and spent most of his teenage years playing in Austria’s lower leagues.
It was only in 2019 that things started picking up pace as Wimmer moved to Austria Wien, then Arminia Bielefeld, and finally to his current club Wolfsburg. The 23-year-old is the kind of character rarely found in today’s game.
“In Austria we say: I don’t give a s***,” he told Kicker last year. “That means I always do what comes into my head, I’m not afraid of making mistakes, and I don’t think too much.”
‘Wimmsi’, as he is known in the dressing room, was mulling over whether he even wanted to be a footballer while weightlifting competitively in his early teens. “I was pretty successful,” he explained. “But I don’t know if I could have financed my life with that.”
His weightlifting background is not immediately apparent upon looking at Wimmer – a slightly wiry but speedy right-winger standing 6ft tall. But he insists: “I was actually something like a European champion.
“At 13 or 14 I had to decide whether I wanted to continue lifting weights or play football. I don’t think my decision was the worst! But in the weight room I notice that I still have the energy in me.”
The natural strength in Wimmer is no doubt helped by his upbringing on a farm in lower Austria, where his grandmother once pushed him to pursue football. The wide man believes that if he didn’t make a career out of his on-pitch exploits or by lifting barbells overhead, he’d still be living the rural life to this day.
“I trained in mechatronics and have a small farm back home,” he said. “Maybe I’d be sitting on the tractor there now if I wasn’t playing football!”
