Triton Series and CoinPoker Ambassador Mario Mosböck met with us for an exclusive interview in which the Austrian speaks in detail about his career as a professional footballer, his poker career, the jump to the Super High Stakes, and his role as a poker ambassador. – In the first part of the big Mario Mosböck interview, the Lower Austrian reveals how he discovered his passion for football, what life as a professional kicker entailed, and what predestines competitive athletes for the jump into the poker business.
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Jan Schwarz: Long before poker was a topic for you, you played football professionally. How did you actually get into football?
Mario Mosböck: That must have been when I was 5 or 6 years old. I started by playing with friends in the garden. Then there was a U6 or U7 team at SV Ratzersdorf, where a friend was already playing. My parents then asked me if I wanted to play for the club, which I then did.
Jan Schwarz: The club was right on your doorstep, where you also grew up?
Mario Mosböck: Exactly. I come from St. Pölten and Ratzersdorf is a district of it. The local SV was my youth club. I played there until the U10s and then moved to SKN, which is the big city club of St. Pölten. One of the 10 football academies in Austria was attached to it, the one for the state of Lower Austria, which I was able to attend. By attending the football academy, you are basically a professional. You still go to school, but otherwise, everyday life consists of football. In the U15, U16, and U18 federal leagues, all of Austria’s talents came together there. The academy ended at the age of 18, and from there the players moved to various clubs.
Jan Schwarz: After graduating from the academy, did you stay with SKN St. Pölten?
Mario Mosböck: Right. Playing for SKN was the most obvious choice. The 1st team played in the 2nd Bundesliga, the 2nd team in the third-tier Regionalliga. That was perfect because even when playing for the 2nd team, the level of play was still very demanding. At 17, 18 years old, I was able to gain experience in the Regionalliga, so the jump to the 2nd Bundesliga six months later wasn’t that big. It was a great setup.
Jan Schwarz: Was it also your home club where you ended up again after your professional career?
Mario Mosböck: I didn’t go back directly to my home club, but to Union Hofstetten-Grünau, a club nearby where I played with friends in the 6th league. That was by far my best time in football. It was great from start to finish. The games were always on Friday evenings and everyone was happy when I was there. It was just a nice village community there in Hofstetten. When some of the older players hung up their boots, the whole thing fizzled out a bit. And then I moved back to my youth club, SV Ratzersdorf. That’s definitely where my player pass is today, but I don’t really play actively anymore. Every now and then I’m involved, but I’ve actually drawn a line under it, because even if people say you don’t always have to play, you still have a responsibility to the team on 25 weekends a year.
Jan Schwarz: But before that, you lived a life as a professional footballer and ended up in the 1. Bundesliga.
Mario Mosböck: With SKN St. Pölten, we became champions of the 2. Bundesliga in 2015. After that, I played in the 1. Bundesliga with SKN for 2 years.
Jan Schwarz: That sounds like a real success story. Why did your paths separate in 2017?
Mario Mosböck: It was clear to me that unless something changed, I definitely didn’t want to continue at that point. After I terminated my contract, however, I extended the planned break from football a bit because the leaders of the 2. Bundesliga, SC Wiener Neustadt, really wanted me to join them. There I was able to get to know a new environment away from my regular club. That was different too, but I clearly noticed that I actually wanted to get away from the professional sports environment entirely and do something else. If I couldn’t imagine sticking with it in that field for another 15 years, I’d rather not do it at all anymore.
