Most people think of table football as something to pass the time with friends at a bar. But for Sophie Jobstmann, it’s a professional sport – one the Viennese player dreams of playing at the Olympics.
The sound of rock music and laughter fills the room and the smell of pizza hangs in the air. It sounds like a fun night out – but Sophie Jobstmann is actually training for her next world championship.
Every Monday evening, the 30-year-old meets her friends at nachBar, a no-frills pub in Vienna’s Josefstadt district, to play table football. The mood is light-hearted, with Jobstmann and the other players smoking and telling jokes before they head over to the table.
But it’s more than a bit of fun.
For Jobstmann, table football – also known as foosball or kicker – is not just a hobby. It’s a professional sport that she invests a lot of time in.
“Table football has definitely become my second life,” she says. “I don’t have any other hobbies any more. I have my own table at home and I train for several hours a day.”
Professional table football – or “Wuzeln” as it’s known in Austria – requires the same dedication as any other professional sport: discipline, stamina and intensive training for those who want to play at the highest level.
Jobstmann has been devoting herself to the pursuit for some time now.
Born and raised in Vienna, she studied as a social worker but now works for an insurance company. She first began playing table football for fun at her local pub.
She joined a Viennese table football club in 2010 at the suggestion of a friend and has been playing competitively ever since – first in the Austrian table football league, and then at an international level.
She won her first international title in 2013: the Table Soccer World Series. The next few years brought silver and bronze medals in various other international tournaments.
Jobstmann currently stands at No 11 in the international women’s table football rankings. And she’s in good company – there are several Austrians in the top echelons of the game.
If she wins a medal at the next world championships, taking place in Spain in 2019, she could move even further up the rankings.
“The international tournaments are a bit like the Grand Slams in tennis,” Jobstmann says. But she can only dream of the kind of prize money given out by the likes of Wimbledon – the top prize at the World Series is about US$340.
“Once I’ve paid for the travel and hotel costs, I’m left with practically nothing,” she says.
Listening to her talk, it’s very clear that for Jobstmann, table football is much more than a way to pass the time in the pub – she sees it as a serious professional sport that is growing in recognition both in Austria and abroad.
However, not everyone in Austria sees it that way. That’s why, Jobstmann says, teams don’t receive any sponsorship money or funding. That’s not the case in other countries, such as Germany, where table football has been recognized as a nonprofit sport since 2010.
The extra support means Germany has around 8,000 table football players who play at an international level, according to Klaus Gottesleben, president of the German Table Football Association.
“In Germany, the situation is quite good. More and more clubs have their own young talent and receive sponsorship,” he says.
However, even in Germany, table football still suffers from its reputation as something people just do for fun in the pub, Gottesleben says.
He’s hopeful for the future, though: “It will be a while before table football becomes a mainstream sport. But we are not under any time pressure.”
He doesn’t think it will be becoming an Olympic sport any time soon. But Jobstmann dares to dream.
“I reckon it will be 10 to 15 years,” she says. If that happens, she will finally be able to realize her ultimate dream: to become a professional “Wuzlerin” and win gold for Austria at the Olympics. – dpa
