NEW YORK, June 10 — Austria is set to establish a new World Cup record for having the tallest player ever to play in the 96-year history of the tournament.
Austrian goalkeeper Florian Wiegele, who plays his club football for Viktoria Plzen in the Czech first division, stands at an impressive two meters and five centimeters in height, which is six feet and nine and a half inches tall. That means that although he is not exactly head and shoulders above Dutch goalkeeper Andries Noppert (2.03 meters), who was at the Qatar World Cup and the previous tallest player in a World Cup squad, he is still taller, while other tall footballers, such as England’s Peter Crouch at 2.01 meters and Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 1.95 meters, are basically in his shadow.
Wiegele, whose only international appearance was against Ghana in a March friendly game, is the third-choice goalkeeper in the Austrian squad behind Alexander Schlager and Patrick Pentz.
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