Women's Euros - Viktoria Schnaderbeck: The Austria captain committed to giving back

Despite preparing to lead her country out at the 2022 UEFA Women’s European Championships off the back of a busy domestic season in the Women's Super League, Austria’s Viktoria Schnaderbeck still has time for more.

Aside from football, the 31-year-old is passionately working with two wider projects to help benefit the wider community whilst juggling her time as a keynote speaker and business consultant.

From helping young girls in Austria kickstart their footballing journey, to working with non-profit associations committed to helping children in Tanzania - Schnaderbeck’s desire to give back to others is compelling.

Sport for development

The former Arsenal midfielder is an ambassador for Jambo Bukoba, a non-for-profit association committed to improving education, health and equality in Tanzania for children and young people.

In 2017, she visited the African country to help out with the ongoing projects having spent time actively raising funds. It was on her agenda to ensure that young girls were receiving access to football and sports to help them develop.

“Gender roles are very traditional [in Tanzania] so girls often have to stay at home to take care of the household,” she explained in an interview.

“Overwhelmingly, there are few opportunities for children in Africa to realise their dreams, whether it’s a career in football or something else. By going on this journey, I recognised that poverty in Tanzania isn’t just material poverty, it’s also a poverty of opportunities, of perspectives and of possibilities.”

As a Jambo Bukoba ambassador, Schnaderbeck has pushed for girls to be offered equal opportunity in Tanzania - be that within football or wider society.

“The empowerment of women and gender equality are very important to me,” she said.

“I support these issues where I can both in football and in the outside world. As a professional footballer, I am a woman in a men’s domain. I’ve come across prejudice and clichés throughout my career. I empower girls and women by asserting myself in this typically male world."

"Through my work with Jambo Bukoba, I also act with women’s interests at heart, and to make girls stronger and more confident in life."

For girls, by girls

Alongside her work in Tanzania, Schnaderbeck has co-founded Be The One Academy, an independent football camp for girls in Austria designed to break down prejudice.

“Girls do not lack interest, but often lack fair access to the sport,” she told Red Bull in 2021.

As a 16 year-old girl playing football in Austria, Schnaderbeck found that there was little opportunity for her to continue playing which triggered a move to Germany’s Bayern Munich where the training conditions were “more mature and varied.”

Teaming up with cousin and fellow OFB team player, Sebastian Prödl, ‘Be The One’ was born as an association and “took over the patronage of the ÖFB women's Bundesliga.”

“We want to make women's football more relevant, attract girls to the sport and improve the conditions for active players,” the player said, discussing the state of the game in her home country.

Football is such a great, socially integrative sport. You can teach young people important values ​​for life through the game: team spirit, courage, tolerance, as well as intercultural competence and equality.”

Viki means business

Schnaderbeck has been faced with her fair share of setbacks.

Adding to her blog, she details her grueling knee injury from 2020.

“When the girls went on summer break or the preparations for the Olympics at the end of May, I went under the knife – again,” she writes. 

“There were days when I sat on the sofa and just cried. Uncertainty, desperation, anger, helplessness. I had to keep reminding myself that I have to allow these emotions and that it's okay not to be okay.”

If there’s one thing that radiates from the Austrian captain, it’s resilience.

Whether she’s overcoming injury or coming back from a loss, her ability to deal with problems that have been thrown her way is remarkable.

She now combines the lessons learned through her footballing career with work in business psychology to consult, lead and deliver workshops, lectures and coaching sessions to global clients like London Business School and the University of Economy Vienna.

“Professional sport provides each of us with answers for everyday life,” it reads on her website. 

With the ability to read a room, dissect a situation and uncover a solution without cracking under pressure, Schnaderbeck possesses all of the qualities needed to lead one's country to victory - a mission she’ll be hoping to achieve this summer.