Guido Burgstaller has spoken to the Austrian media about his career, and mentioned his brief spell with Cardiff City. The 36-year-old spent an unforgettable six months with the Welsh club after signing from Rapid Vienna.
Speaking to Sport Bild, the attacker was asked about a formative time in his career, and brought up Cardiff City and gave some reasons for things not working out.
Burgstaller said a major factor was that he struggled to understand his teammates and others because of their accents. The Austrian went on to reveal he was eventually made to train with Cardiff City’s third team due to the issues he had settling in.
“When I played in Cardiff. That’s when I felt how tough the football business can be. I only played five games and didn’t understand the language properly. In Wales you don’t speak pure English, there’s a blatant dialect. I had no access to the team at all and was relegated to the third training group. That was a hard time, but it brought me a lot as a person,” said Burgstaller.
Signed by Ole Gunnar Solskjær in 2014 there was hope the former Austrian international could bring goals to the Norwegian’s team.
However, his time at the club didn’t go to plan and he made just five appearances for the Bluebirds, scoring one goal. He was eventually sold in the 2015 winter transfer to FC Nürnberg.
With a little inspection, Guido Burgstaller’s claims don’t stand up. During his time at Cardiff City, there were only two Welshmen in the squad, Danny Gabbidon and Declan John. There were 18 English players, and others from around the world.
The reason for failure clearly wasn’t down to the local accent.
Following a spell with German side FC Schalke 04 he signed again for Rapid Vienna in 2022. This season he’s scored eight goals in 30 games for the Austrian giants.
