Austria — 2026 World Cup Squad

Forget the underdog framing for a moment. What Austria carry to 2026 is a midfield engine room most bigger names would quietly envy. Konrad Laimer runs the kind of miles for Bayern that don't show up until the 80th minute, when everyone around him is walking. Xaver Schlager brings the Leipzig press, all teeth and timing, and Marcel Sabitzer pushes the play forward from Dortmund with a shot that can settle a tight one. Group J, with Jordan as the obvious minnows, hands Ralf Rangnick's side a real path to the last 16.

The football is unmistakably Rangnick: vertical, suffocating, hunting turnovers in packs and treating each regain as a half-chance. Christoph Baumgartner supplies the final-third jolt off that same Leipzig conveyor belt, while Paul Wanner, now sharpening his game at PSV, is the joker in the pack, a left foot built to crack the locks a gegenpress can't.

And then there is David Alaba. The Real Madrid veteran has spent too many recent months at war with his own body, and a major tournament feels like the farewell this career deserves. Marshal this back line the way only he can, and nobody treats Austria as a free pass.