Arnautovic dreams burst: Rapid Vienna is looking for new alternatives!

Arnautovic dreams burst: Rapid Vienna is looking for new alternatives!

The football world is currently looking forward to Austria, especially on Rapid Vienna. The club is very interested in Marko Arnautovic, the record national player in Austria with 125 international matches. The media have been dealing with rumors about a change to the traditional association for weeks, and interest has now also been confirmed by Arnautovics consultants and brother, Daniel Arnautovic. But the Situation is complicated, as Kosmo reported.

The sports manager of Rapid, Markus Katzer, dampened the expectations and explained that there is currently no contact via an agreement. He also emphasized that Arnautovic was not the top priority of the association and emphasized that the club also has other good players in the squad. "We also have to orientate ourselves differently if an obligation is not possible," says Katzer. At the same time, head coach Peter Stöger is pushing for a timely decision before the training camp in Freistadt begins.

a tempting offer

Rapid Vienna has apparently submitted a contract offer of two years that sounds tempting with an annual salary of three million euros gross. The financing of this offer is to be made by external donors and through additional income from merchandising, ticket sales and jerseys. However, this salary is high for the Austrian Bundesliga, so that a transfer in the financial framework would be quite challenging, such as Transfermarkt reported.

Since his end of the contract with Inter Milan on July 1, 2025, Arnautovic has been without a club. He played 28 games last season and was involved in nine goals. Its highest market value of 35 million euros between December 2018 and September 2019 has long been history, now this is 3 million euros. Despite his experience from 520 professional games and 217 goal participations in different countries, Arnautovic is currently less interested in returning to the Austrian Bundesliga and could search more stronger abroad.

The challenge for rapid

The departures in the rapid rigid storm series make the commitment of an experienced player all the more urgent. The best goal scorers of the past season, Dion Beljo and Guido Burgstaller, left the club, which forces those responsible to find suitable successors. Rapid completed the last season in fifth place and is now fighting for a European place in the Conference League playoffs.

The Chapter Arnautovic remains exciting, because while he posed with fans during his vacation and spoke of a "new chapter", it remains to be seen whether the dream of a change is actually fulfilled. Katzer and Hofmann are trying to get the topic off the table, while the Austrian football landscape is eagerly observing how the situation is developing.