Grazer AK

Fans celabrating the championship 2004

The club was founded by a group of students led by medical student Georg August Wagner from Prague. Due to this development the first football match in Austria with the FA rules took place in Graz. 1902 was the official start of the Grazer Athletik-Sport-Club. The club reached the Styrian Championship in 1922, 1924 and between 1926 and 1933 and was Austrian Amateur Champion in 1929, 1932 and 1933. One of the players of GAK was Rudi Hiden, who went to Wiener AC and became goalkeeper of the famous "Austrian Wunderteam". 1944 the matches were stopped due to the Second World War.

1946 the club begun again. 1951 it reached the highest class (Liga A) and, at the end of that season, the 6th position, which was the best of a club outside Vienna. In the following years the Athletics were established in the first class. 1962 and 1968 they where runners-up in the cup-final. Only because the league was reformed the club was relegated to the second division in 1974, but came back one year later. 1981 the Athletics gained first title as professional team when they won the Austrian cup, which also was the first title for a styrian team. From 1990 to 1995 the club was in the second league. They won the cup-title also in 2000, 2002 and were double winners in 2004.

2007 the club collapsed due to 15,2 mil. € debts. They had to go to the third league where they went bankrupt again and had to interrupt playing in october 2012.

2013 they had to start over from the lowest (9th tier) league after being reestablished. Since then the club (named GAC due legal grounds initially) won every championship. For the Season 2017/18, they are in Landesliga Steiermark, 4th tier. In the 2019/20 season they came back to professional football being promoted to the 2nd league.

As of 17 December 2021 2021

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  Austria Jakob Meierhofer 2 DF  Austria Philipp Seidl 3 DF  Austria Michael Huber 4 DF  Philippines Stephan Palla 6 MF  Austria Markus Rusek 7 FW  Brazil Pedro Felipe (on loan from Mirassol) 8 MF  Austria Gerald Nutz 9 FW  Austria David Peham 10 MF  Mali Mamadou Sangare (on loan from Red Bull Salzburg) 11 MF  Austria Martin Harrer 12 DF  Austria Emir Poric 13 MF  Austria Marco Perchtold 14 FW  Austria Paul Kiedl 15 DF  Austria Lukas Graf

No. Pos. Nation Player 17 FW  Croatia Filip Smoljan 18 MF  Croatia Dragan Smoljan 19 DF  Austria Marco Gantschnig 20 MF  Austria Thomas Fink 22 MF  Austria Lukas Gabbichler 23 DF  Austria Josef Weberbauer 25 MF  Austria Lukas Alterdinger 26 GK  Austria Christoph Nicht 27 DF  Austria Benjamin Rosenberger 31 FW  Austria Florian Jessenitschnig 32 MF  Austria Markus Stenzel 47 FW  Austria Daniel Kalajdzic 77 GK  Austria Chris Weigelt

Seasons since the re-foundation 2012

[1]

Start	End	Coach
3/2000	4/200	Rainer Hörgl
4/2000	9/2001	Werner Gregoritsch
9/2001	10/2001	Christian Keglevits
10/2001	8/2002	Thijs Libregts
8/2002	10/2002	Christian Keglevits
10/2002	1/2006	Walter Schachner
1/2006	6/2007	Lars Søndergaard
7/2007	1/2008	Dietmar Pegam
1/2008	8/2008	Stojadin Rajković
8/2008	1/2010	Gregor Pötscher
1/2010	11/2010	Heinz Karner
11/2010	6/2011	Peter Stöger
7/2011	6/2013	Aleš Čeh
7/2012	10/2012	Ante Šimundža
7/2013	9/2017	Gernot Plassenegger
10/2017	1/2019	David Preiß
1/2019	6/2019	Enrico Kulovits
7/2019	2/2020	David Preiß
2/2020	3/2020	Ralph Spirk/ Alois Hödl
3/2020	10/2021	Gernot Plassenegger
10/2021	11/2021	Stefan Kammerhofer
11/2021	12/2021	Ralph Spirk
12/2021		Gernot Messner

• Austrian Champion:2004
• Austrian Cup:1981, 2000, 2002, 2004
• Austrian Second League Champion:1975, 1993, 1995
• Austrian Champion (amateurs):1929, 1932, 1933
• Styrian Champion:1922, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933

List of international games of GAK in UEFA-Cup, Champions League Qualification, Cupwinners' Cup and in Fairs' Cup:

1962/63:

1. B 1909 Odense (CdCs – 1/8 Finale) 1:1 (H) 3:5 (A)

1964/65:

1. NK Zagreb (MC R1) 0:6 (H) 2:3 (A)

1968/69:

1. Ado Den Haag (CdCs R1) 0:2 (H) 1:4 (A)

1972/73:

1. Panachaiki Patras (UC R1) 0:1 (H) 1:2 (A)

1980/81:

1. Dinamo Tbilisi (CdCs – 1/16 Finale) 2:2 (H) 0:2 (A)

1982/83:

1. Corvinul Hunedoara (UC R1) 1:1 (H) 0:3 (A)

1996/97:

1. Vojvodina Novi Sad (UC Q2) 2:0 (H) 5:1 (A)
2. Germinal Ekeren (UC R1) 2:0 (H) 1:3 (A)
3. Inter Milan (UC R2) 1:0 (H) 0:1 (4:5 i.E.)(A)

1998/99:

1. VPS Vaasa (UC Q2) 3:0 (H) 0:0 (A)
2. Litex Lovech (UC R1) 2:0 (H) 1:1 (A)
3. AS Monaco (UC R2) 3:3 (H) 0:4 (A)

1999/2000:

1. KÍ Klaksvík (UC Q) 4:0 (H) 5:0 (A)
2. Spartak Trnava (UC R1) 3:0 (H) 1:2 (A)
3. Panathinaikos (UC R2) 2:1 (H) 0:1 (A)

2000/01:

1. FC Kosice (UC R1) 0:0 (H) 3:2 (A)
2. Espanyol Barcelona (UC R2) 1:0 (H) 0:4 (A)

2001/02:

1. HB Tórshavn (UC Q) 4:0 (H) 2:2 (A)
2. FC Utrecht (UC R1) 3:3 (H) 0:3 (A)

2002/03:

1. FC Sheriff Tiraspol (CL Q2) 2:0 (H) 4:1 (A)
2. Lokomotiv Moscow (CL Q3) 0:2 (H) 3:3 (A)
3. Apoel Nicosia (UC R1) 1:1 (H) 0:2 (A)

2003/04:

1. SK Tirana (CL Q2) 2:1 (H) 5:1 (A)
2. Ajax Amsterdam (CL Q3) 1:1 (H) 1:2 (A)
3. Vålerenga I.F. Fotball (UC R1) 1:1 (H) 0:0 (A)

2004/05:

1. Liverpool F.C. (CL Q3) 0:2 (H) 1:0 (A)
2. Litex Lovech (UC R1) 5:0 (H) 0:1 (A)
3. AJ Auxerre (UC Gruppe F) 0:0 (A)
4. Amica Wronki (UC Gruppe F) 3:1 (H)
5. Rangers F.C. (UC Gruppe F) 0:3 (A)
6. AZ Alkmaar (UC Gruppe F) 2:0 (H)
7. Middlesbrough F.C. (UC 16tel-Finale) 2:2 (H) 1:2 (A)

2005/06:

1. Nistru Otaci (UC Q) 2:0 (A) 1:0 (H)
2. RC Strasbourg (UC R1) 0:2 (H) 0:5 (A)

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