Franz "Bimbo" Binder (1 December 1911 – 24 April 1989) was an Austrian football player and coach who played as a forward. Internationally he represented the Austria national team and, during the Anschluss, the Germany national team. He played internationally immediately following the Austrian "Wunderteam" of 1931-32. He is the all time leading scorer of Rapid Wien with 1006 goals in 757 games and regarded as one of the greatest Austrian players of all times. In his whole career he would score 1202 goals in 831 matches. With an average-score of 1.44 goals per match, he is among the most prolific scorers in football history. Binder is one of only a few players to score more than 1200 goals in his professional career alongside Lajos Tichy, Josef Bican, Gerd Müller, Ferenc Puskás, Ferenc Deák, Erwin Helmchen and Pelé.

Club career

Binder came from a family of labourers. He had nine siblings. When he was 15 years old he played football for the first team of Sturm 19 St. Pölten. Nicknamed Bimbo, Binder was a prolific goalscorer who played for SK Rapid Wien. He won the national Austrian championship four times and was three times top goalscorer in the Austrian league. In 1941 he also won the German championship with a 4–3 victory against Schalke 04, where he scored three goals. From 1930 to 1937, Binder scored more than 700 goals for Rapid Wien, including the reserves;

International career

Binder was a very prolific goal scorer for both club and country, scoring 16 goals in 19 international matches for Austria, and later 10 goals in just 9 matches for Germany. He made his international debut on 11 June 1933 in a friendly against Belgium, scoring twice in a 4-1 win. In 1934, he scored a goal against both Italy and Czechoslovakia, the 1934 World Cup champions and runner-ups respectively. In January 1936, he scored a goal against both Iberian teams, Spain and Portugal, in 5-4 and 3-2 wins respectively. In 1937, he scored winners against France and Latvia (both 2-1 victories), with the latter being the most important as it assured Austria a ticket to the 1938 World Cup. His debut with Germany was remarkably similar to Austria's, as he scored against Belgium in a 4-1 win again. He then scored two back-to-back hat-tricks against Bohemia and Moravia and the then World Champions Italy, with the former salvaging his side a 4-4 draw while the latter helped to a 5-2 win. In the following year he scored two more goals against Italy in a 3-2 win at the San Siro, which were the last he scored for Germany. After an 8-year hiatus, he returned to an Austria line-up in 1945, and despite being in his late 30s he still managed to score a further 5 goals for Austria before retiring from international football.

Managerial career

After retirement from playing he became a football coach, of teams such as Jahn Regensburg, PSV Eindhoven, 1. FC Nürnberg, 1860 Munich and Rapid Wien.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Player

Rapid Wien Individual