The biggest event in football, the FIFA World Cup returns after four years. It is a particularly special World Cup for Bayern Munich midfielder-turned-right-back Konrad Laimer. The 28-year-old was recently named the Austrian Player of the Year 2025 and was vital in bringing his national team back into the World Cup for the first-time since 1998. Austria’s group features Jordan, Argentina and Algeria, meaning Laimer and co. will be facing current the World Champions in the group stage at Dallas.
Laimer
spoke on facing Messi, stating he was happy to be playing against the best.
“You’re always happy to play against the best, and for me personally, he’s the best,” he said, per @iMiaSanMia.
Per the draw rules, it is permitted for a group to draw two European teams due to the large number of teams. Four out of the twelve groups have drawn two European teams in them. With respect to this, he said that it felt like “a real World Cup” since Austria only faced teams from other continents. “It’s a very interesting and definitely not an easy group. I think it’s kind of cool that we’re only facing opponents from continents other than Europe — it’s like a real World Cup,” he said.
“There’s still a lot of time until then, but I’m already really looking forward to it.”
For Bayern and Thomas Müller fans, this fixture means that our own Alpine Zidane might avenge Müller following his team’s 3-1 loss to Messi’s Inter Miami in the MLS Cup final. Needless to say, all of Bayern will be #TeamAustria all the way.
