Kick-off for the final phase of the autumn season in the 2nd football league: There are still three games on the agenda for SV Guntamtic Ried in the 2024 calendar year – with a win in today’s home game against Bregenz (8.30 p.m., Innviertel Arena) the pressure should be increased be increased to league leaders Admira. The title rivals from Lower Austria will meet Liefering at home on Saturday (2.30 p.m.).
Antonio Van Wyk should also contribute to a sense of success today: In the summer, the 22-year-old became the first South African in the club’s history to join the Innviertler second division team and was signed as Belmin Beganovic’s replacement. The tip came from Ried’s assistant coach Moritz Kossmann, who worked as a supervisor in South Africa until the summer. “I already worked with Toni between 2017 and 2021. When Belmin left us in the summer, I suggested Toni to sports director Wolfgang Fiala.” His qualities? “He has very high speed and good dribbling. He can become a player who will give Ried a lot of fun in the future.”
The Vikings paid a low six-figure sum for the transfer in the summer – a real bargain compared to his market value of one million euros at the time. “He really wanted to go to Europe, his club Stellenbosch didn’t want to stop him from taking this step,” explains Ried’s sports director Fiala.
In Ried he should be introduced slowly. Fiala: “Belmin was not an undisputed regular player. We know Antonio’s enormous potential, but we considered that he doesn’t have to work straight away. We couldn’t have gotten a player of his quality with an Austrian passport.” The data is impressive: Van Wyk’s top speed measured in Ried is 36.5 km/h, and he is particularly nimble due to his around 61 kilograms. Lightness that his team can definitely use in the fight for the title…
