David Alaba will captain his country at World Cup 2026
Austria set to grace global showpiece for first time since 1998
Ralf Rangnick’s side in Group J with Algeria, Argentina and Jordan
David Alaba’s career has been about as glittering as you can get. The Vienna-born veteran has shone on some of football’s biggest stages and lifted a panoply of domestic, continental and even global silverware at club level with Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
However, there is one notable gap on his CV: a FIFA World Cup™ campaign. The seasoned defender will finally tick that box over the coming weeks, fulfilling a lifelong dream in the process, when he captains at the in North America.
FIFA caught up with the 33-year-old defensive specialist to discuss how much it will mean to him to grace his maiden edition of the showpiece competition, the progress made by Das Nationalteam and the challenges that await in the group stage against , holders and .
David Alaba: I’m really buzzing ahead of the tournament. It’s going to be a dream come true. It’s the sort of event that you can’t help but feel grateful to have the chance to experience and be part of. We’re really proud to have booked our place.
Playing in my first World Cup will definitely be right up there in terms of anything I’ve experienced. It was arguably one of the few things missing from my career, so it’s going to be really special.
The night of the game against , when we got over the line, was full of emotion for all of us. I could see in my team-mates’ eyes what it meant to them. It was a really incredible feeling.
The team pretty much never wavered in the belief that we’d get the job done. Personally, I never doubted that we’d make it. We never took anything for granted, though, and you could see that in our attitude out on the pitch. We stayed motivated throughout the qualifying campaign and kept our eyes on the prize. We took each match as it came, and I think we deserved to qualify. It’s true that things got a bit nervy towards the end, but I don’t think we ever really let doubts creep in.
I’m certainly drawing closer to the end of my career. I know the role I have within the team, though. I embrace the responsibility and try to play my part and stay true to myself. I want to do my bit to help the team.
First and foremost, I look to take responsibility with my performances on the pitch. I want to lead by example, carry the team on my shoulders and conduct myself in line with my values. The team make it very easy for me and allow me to just be myself. I stay pretty relaxed about it, even if it might not look that way from the outside. I try to keep my feet on the ground, but I don’t shy away from the responsibility that comes with my role in the team.
We’ve come a long way as a team, especially in the last few years. We’ve now got a huge amount of quality running through the side, and you can see that in our performances. We’ve built up real confidence, and we want to take that into the tournament and show what we’re made of. I believe the squad have the character you need to be successful and win matches. That said, we’re well aware that we’ve got a tough group and there are no easy games at the World Cup.
That’s a very good question. It’s going to be a first taste of the World Cup for all of us. We have to stay calm while making sure that we do all the right things to give ourselves the best possible chance of success. We’re a very ambitious team. One of our biggest strengths is the fact that we’re a really tight-knit unit. If we manage to show that out on the pitch, we have what it takes to be successful.
It’s not only about Messi: getting to play against Argentina is amazing in itself. They’re the reigning world champions, after all. It’ll be a really special match and a very difficult one for us. We don’t want to focus too much on the opposition, though. To get results, we need to stick to our guns and play our game, and that goes for the Argentina match too.
We’re not thinking about that at the moment. I’m convinced that we have a team capable of achieving success, and we’ll set out to make history; that’s our goal. Only time will tell whether we have enough to go all the way, but we’ve got big dreams and are shooting for the stars.
Sources: FIFA Official
