SK Rapid
Also written as Rapid Vienna, Rapid Wien.
The club
Rapid were founded in 1897 as the Erster Wiener Arbeiter-Fußball-Club, the First Viennese Workers' Football Club, and took the name Sportklub Rapid on 8 January 1899, following the example of Rapide Berlin. The original colours were red and blue, still used for away kits; green and white were adopted in 1904, and the club has been Die Grün-Weißen ever since. They are also called the Hütteldorfer, after the district of Vienna where the Allianz Stadion stands. The ground holds 28,345. Alexander Wrabetz is chairman.
Rapid and Austria Vienna are the only Austrian clubs never to have been relegated. Rapid hold the Austrian record of 32 league titles, including the first national championship in 1911-12.
Recent seasons
Rapid have been a top-half but not a title-winning club for two decades; the last championship was in 2007-08. They finished fifth in 2021-22, fourth in 2022-23, fourth in 2023-24, fifth in 2024-25 and fifth in 2025-26.
The 2025-26 season ended with 27 points in the championship round, from 32 matches across the season in which Rapid won 12, drew 8 and lost 12, scoring 36 and conceding 41. LASK were champions. Fifth place put Rapid into the domestic Conference League play-off, which they won: beaten 2-1 by Ried at the BWT X Upper Austrian Arena on 22 May 2026, Romeo Amane scoring, they won the return 3-0 at the Allianz Stadion on 25 May before 14,604, Jakob Schöller scoring on 26 and 66 minutes and Louis Schaub in stoppage time. That 4-2 aggregate is why they are in Europe at all this season.
Honours and landmarks
Thirty-two Austrian championships, the record, most recently 2004-05 and 2007-08. Fourteen Austrian Cups, most recently 1994-95. Four Austrian Supercups: 1986, 1987, 1988 and 2008. Two Mitropa Cups, 1930 and 1951.
During the annexation of Austria, Rapid played in the German football system and won the Tschammerpokal in 1938, beating FSV Frankfurt 3-1, and the German championship in 1941, coming from 3-0 down to beat Schalke 04 4-3 in the final.
Rapid reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup twice, in 1984-85 and 1995-96, and lost both. Their most recent significant European run was the quarter-final of the 2024-25 Conference League, where they went out to Djurgårdens IF.
Notable scorelines
Record league win: 13-1 away to Wacker Wiener Neustadt on 12 March 1939. Record league defeat: 2-10 away to First Vienna on 24 October 1943; in the modern era, 2-7 at home to Red Bull Salzburg on 24 June 2020.
Record European win: 8-0 at home to Avenir Beggen in the European Cup on 29 September 1982, with 8-1 against Hajduk Split in the Mitropa Cup on 14 December 1926 ahead of it in raw goals. More recently, 6-1 at home to Wisła Kraków in Europa League qualifying on 1 August 2024. Record European defeats: 2-9 away to Vasas in the Mitropa Cup on 4 August 1956, 2-7 at Milan in the European Cup on 12 February 1956, and 0-6 at Valencia in the Europa League on 18 February 2016.
European record
The match at Paide on 6 August 2026 was, by the club's own count, Rapid's 344th European match since 1955, a record of 141 wins, 65 draws and 138 defeats with 526 goals scored and 483 conceded. Rapid have twice reached a European final, both times in the Cup Winners' Cup, in 1985 and 1996, and lost both. In the modern era their best run is the 2024-25 Conference League, in which they reached the quarter-finals before losing to Djurgårdens IF, and in whose league phase they beat Noah 1-0 at the Allianz Stadion.
Their only previous visit to the Baltic states was the second qualifying round of the 2010-11 Europa League against Sudova Marijampolė of Lithuania: a 2-0 away win through Steffen Hofmann and Christopher Trimmel, then a home leg in which Rapid trailed 2-1 with four minutes left before René Gartler scored twice and Nikica Jelavić added a third to win 4-2. The 2026-27 qualifying campaign has given the club two more first-time opponents, having faced Dečić Tuzi of Montenegro for the first time last season, and FC Santa Coloma of Andorra and Paide Linnameeskond of Estonia this.
Quotes
- "Wir haben unseren Gegner genau analysiert und in der letzten Runde auch live beobachtet. In ihrer Offensive müssen wir auf die Nummer 9 achten, ansonsten ist zu erwarten, dass wir auf einen sehr tief stehenden Gegner treffen, der gegen Zira, ein Team, das trotz des Ausscheidens einen starken Eindruck machte, manchmal mit einer Sechser-Kette in der Defensive agierte. Für uns hat der Europacup natürlich in mehreren Belangen eine große Priorität und wir wollen uns in Tallinn eine möglichst gute Ausgangsposition für das Rückspiel schaffen" - Johannes Hoff Thorup, Rapid head coach, on the club website before the first leg in Estonia, 5 August 2026. https://www.skrapid.at/aktuelles/2026/08/ab-nach-tallinn/
Further attributed quotes from the current squad were not confirmed from the sources read here; the club's own match report of 6 August 2026 carries no direct speech.
Right now (2026/27)
Johannes Hoff Thorup, a Dane, is head coach. Matthias Seidl is captain. Summer arrivals in the squad include Tonni Adamsen and Petter Nosa Dahl. Ercan Kara reached ten goals in European competition for Rapid this summer, taking him into the club's all-time top ten in Europe ahead of Guido Burgstaller and Christian Stumpf.
Rapid entered the Conference League at the second qualifying round and beat FC Santa Coloma 9-3. They won 3-1 at the Estadi Nacional in Andorra la Vella on 23 July 2026 through Serge-Philippe Raux-Yao on 50 minutes, Yusuf Demir on 56 and Moulaye Haïdara on 89, then won 6-2 at home on 29 July before 13,208, Kara scoring a hat-trick on 10, 33 and 63 minutes with Dahl, Nenad Cvetković and Nikolaus Wurmbrand adding the others.
The tie they are in now is the third qualifying round against Paide Linnameeskond of Estonia, and Rapid are close to finishing it. They won the first leg 4-1 at the Lilleküla Staadion in Tallinn on Thursday 6 August 2026 in front of 5,569, Paide having moved the fixture from Pärnu to the national stadium to meet UEFA requirements. Bendegúz Bolla scored a fifth-minute penalty after a handball by Victor Hugo was confirmed on review; Daniel Luts equalised on 41 minutes from a rebound off the crossbar; then Moulaye Haïdara scored on 83, Petter Nosa Dahl on 85 and Haïdara again in stoppage time. The club reported that a young Rapid supporter, born in 1997, died on the way to Estonia that day following an allergic reaction.
The second leg is at the Allianz Stadion on Wednesday 12 August 2026, kicking off at 18:00 because of the UEFA Super Cup the same evening, refereed by Denys Shurman of Ukraine. It is Rapid's first European home match against Estonian opposition. They arrive on seven consecutive competitive wins, six of them this season, a run the club says it has not matched since 2017-18. The winners meet the losers of Benfica against Heart of Midlothian in the play-off round on 20 and 27 August.
In the Austrian Bundesliga, which began at the end of July, Rapid have won both matches, scoring three and conceding one, and stood second behind LASK on goal difference as of 10 August 2026. They have been drawn against Austria Klagenfurt in the second round of the ÖFB Cup.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SK_Rapid_Wien https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SK_Rapid_Wien_records_and_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Austrian_Football_Bundesliga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Austrian_Football_Bundesliga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(first_and_second_round_matches) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(third_and_play-off_round_matches) https://www.skrapid.at/aktuelles/2026/08/ab-nach-tallinn/ https://www.skrapid.at/aktuelles/2026/08/zaeher-auswaertssieg/ https://www.skrapid.at/aktuelles/2026/08/noch-ein-schritt-zum-play-off/ https://www.skrapid.at/aktuelles/2026/08/rapid-in-estland/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.