Michael Steinwender's journey to Hearts: Importance of Sweden transfer

Despite a lack of infrastructure and facilities, the club secured their status in the Allsvenskan in November through the play-offs. The 2025 season which starts later this year will be their fourth in a row.

One of the key members of the squad who helped the club avoid the drop to the second tier was Michael Steinwender.

The 24-year-old defender took the decision to swap football in the Austrian Bundesliga for a town of 20,000 people and the opportunity to test himself abroad.

Austria to Sweden is not a normal route but 20 games across five months acted as a springboard for a move to Heart of Midlothian in January and he has already made his mark in maroon.

It started with a tip.

Steinwender had ascended to the top flight in Austria not long after his 20th birthday and would go on to play nearly 100 games in the Bundesliga when the move to Sweden came about.

Enes Ahmetovic, a former footballer-turned-sporting director, was told about Steinwender by an old team-mate.

At the time, he was working as the sporting director at Varnamo, one of the clubs he had turned out for during his playing career in the Swedish lower leagues. 

The Austrian league was finishing just as the Swedish season was ramping up.

Ahmetovic and then Varnamo head coach Anes Mravac went to work, seeing if the player was compatible with what they were trying to achieve. It became clear early on that he was someone who would instantly make the team better.

It was then about trying to get a deal done for a player who was out of contract at Hartberg.

"You get so many tips, so data is a very good tool to see if there's any point of putting time or effort into a player or not," Ahmetovic explained to Hearts Standard. "So once I got this tip about the player, I put his data through KPIs that are very similar to how Varnamo wanted to play, which is, let's say, roughly attractive football where you dominate with the ball.

"So the KPIs and the data were good and we started to watch him. Quite easily you see a majestic piece when you look at him. He's a big player but still has a lot of speed, which is very attractive for teams, especially those that want to defend high up and aggressive in man-to-man marking. Good in aerials, but also with speed.

"Then the most fantastic thing about him is maybe his play with the ball. He cuts defending lines like a knife through butter. So that was the things we saw."

It was a collaborative effort.

Ahmetovic watched him and did background on the target. Mravac and his assistant watched him in action, from full games to clips. They liked what they saw "both offensively and defensively" in a position and profile that was "badly needed".

"We had a Zoom meeting, a long Zoom meeting with him," Mravac told Hearts Standard, "and showed him how he would fit in our way of playing, by being dynamic, which he is. A mobile player, good in pressing high, good in protecting the spacing behind."

He added, backing up Ahmetovic: "We played a lot of high pressing and man-to-man marking. Also, he was really, really good with the ball. That also was something that was required in our way of playing. So, situations in small spaces and also having this foot to play the ball behind."

All of the above tallies with the profile of player Hearts are trying to recruit, especially at the back. Sunday's performance against Rangers demonstrated the need to have centre-backs who are mobile, can recover and are strong in one v one situations.

To reiterate, Varnamo are an unfashionable club.

Of the 16 top flight clubs in Sweden, they had the second lowest average attendance. Their 2,357 average was lower than Livingston's last season.

Steinwender found a club that didn't have much in the way of infrastructure. On his introduction to the press after signing for Hearts he spoke of the gym consisting of a bench press. The Oriam is a world away.

Ahmetovic and Mravac, both of whom moved on during the centre-back's short stay in Sweden, were blunt in their assessment of what Varnamo had to offer in the way of facilities. Ahmetovic compared them to a team in the third tier.

Both used it as a way to talk up Steinwender and how he approached the challenge of switching leagues.

"His mentality, he's quite a calm guy, to be honest, but super, super professional," Ahmetovic said. "He came from a league that is higher ranked than ours and in Varnamo we didn't have the facilities that he's maybe used to. So he put the utmost in every detail he could, maybe on a higher level than the average player in the Allsvenskan will dedicate.

"He was really, really detailed about being the best version of himself. It sounds like a cliché, but it was actually the way it was."

He added: "A very calm guy outside the pitch, spending a lot of time with his girlfriend, a very calm man. But on the pitch, he's an indirect leader, with his style of play, going into duels, winning duels, with his aesthetic look on the field."

That professionalism was hammered home by Mravac. Coming into a team during the season, swapping countries and cultures, he adapted well.

In fact, he may well have prepared him for the jump to Hearts with Steinwender requiring his English to communicate with his new team-mates.

"He's professional in everything he does," he stated. "I, and the other coaches, had a lot of sessions with him. Showing him video analysis directly when he came, quite a lot on how we are playing, so he can adapt, and that's also a quality, how you can take in information. So that's one part that I think he was brilliant in.

"He's a clever guy, he's a smart person. How he's outside of the pitch, taking care of everything as a professional should do, with sleeping and all that stuff. You can see that on his performances on the training and on the pitch, that he is professional.

"The group accepted him fast, by first of all being a good football player, but also as a person. It was not easy for him coming from Austria to Varnamo and the circumstances in Varnamo. If you see it with your own eyes, you will see, is this a professional club? Because the level of some stuff is so low that it's incredible.

"That was for him, 'Oh wow, you don't have this, you don't have this, you don't have this'. But that didn't bother him, he just continued to work and improve. So I would say he's a top professional."

Part of the video analysis and the work Varnamo did in looking to improve Steinwender came around his positioning when defending the box. Against Rangers he demonstrated that improvement by being well positioned to cut out a number of passes or crosses into dangerous areas.

(Image: SNS Group)

When Tom Irving provided a scout report on Steinwender following his arrival at Tynecastle Park, one of the aspects of his game he pinpointed was his leadership at the back and his communication.

The 24-year-old wants to take responsibility in and out of possession. There were a couple of times against Rangers where he sought to progress the game, whether it was advancing with the ball or attempting a pass into the midfield or attack that broke through Rangers. 

"For a footballer you can be a leader in different ways," Mravac said. "One is communicating.

"But I think he's also a leader by showing the other players the way. Showing how you take tackles, how you are pushing, how you are brave with the ball, trying to play. That's also leadership showing the way.

"Michael showed leadership in communication, and defending and offensive parts in different ways."

Part of the club's sell to Steinwender was giving him the platform in Sweden's top flight to showcase his talents to teams abroad.

Ahmetovic, who used the Netherlands as a possible example of Steinwender's next step, noted that "quite quickly" the Austrian became the "talk of the town" and it was accepted that he would not be at Varnamo for a long time.

If Hearts didn't work hard to get the deal done to bring him to Tynecastle, there were other suitors keen to do so around Europe and further afield.

They had already convinced the player with their plans on the field and the lifestyle off of it. Edinburgh would provide more than Varnamo for the player and his partner, who painted her nails maroon for his introduction day before the signing announcement.

"When you introduce a player such as Michael to the style of play, players often get interested, because they see the scouting has been properly done to fit into the style of play, which always attracts players," Ahmetovic said. 

"For Steini, the strange thing about Austria is, if you're not in Sturm Graz or Red Bull Salzburg, they don't sell as many players as we do in Sweden. So the biggest clubs obviously sell to good clubs, but the rest of them, they don't sell players in the same sense to Holland, to Belgium, to Scotland, to good leagues, attractive leagues.

"This was, I think, a big thing for him. Okay, the league isn't better, but he will be an important player in this club.

"Also, it's a very, very good league to do great things for his career, getting the possibilities further on, like he's got now in Scotland, which is something I'm very happy about, because this was actually something I told him, 'If you do good here, trust me, you're going to have interest from leagues'."

Within five months and 20 games, Steinwender earned a move. An ambitious centre-back found a club with ambitious targets as the perfect next step.