Toni Polster

A prolific Austrian centre-forward, Tony Polster was a classic goalscorer with size, instinct and a wonderfully stubborn relationship with the penalty area. He was not the most elegant striker in open play, nor a forward built to dazzle defenders with constant invention, but his timing, physical presence and finishing made him brutally effective. At Austria Wien, Sevilla, Köln and with Austria, he scored with remarkable consistency, living off movement, anticipation and the old striker’s gift of turning ordinary service into statistical damage. Strong in the air, reliable from close range and mentally sharp around rebounds, he belonged to the noble school of forwards who did not need beauty to hurt you. Perhaps not an elite global number 9, but absolutely a serious European goalscorer.