WORLD CUP SOCCER : Polster Makes Austria One One-Man Team to Watch

Ensconced in a 16th-Century villa in the picturesque Tuscan hills outside Florence, the Austrian World Cup soccer team is steeped in symbolism: There is opulence, a regal air, an omnipresent scent of success. All of which describes the Austrian team--or at least the team’s star player, Toni Polster.

Tall and rangy, Polster is one of Europe’s most prolific goal scorers. But Polster’s symbolic value may be greater. To the young Austrian team, Polster represents the nation’s best hope to advance in Group A, which includes Italy, Czechoslovakia and the United States.

Austria opens play Saturday against Italy in Rome.

Curly haired and soft-spoken, Polster, 26, has emerged as an unlikely hero for his nation of 7 1/2 million. He is the only Austrian player good enough to play on the club level outside his country this season. Playing in Seville, Spain, Polster was third in European league scoring this season.

Unusually guarded Josef Hickersberger, the Austrian coach, said of Polster: “Since playing in Seville, he has shown a form that he has never shown before. He is the man in whom lies all of our hopes for the World Cup. If he is able to bring his form in Spain to our national team, I am sure we will be able to advance to the second round.”

Austria is projected to advance beyond the first round almost solely on the strength of Polster’s remarkable progress in the last year. The Austrian team has not lost since qualifying for the World Cup, compiling a 3-0-2 record in pretournament exhibitions. Most impressive to soccer insiders was the tie with Argentina, defending World Cup champion, and a 3-2 win last month over the Netherlands.

The team’s emergence, plus the presence of Polster, has sent Austria’s stock rising, or--more accurately--it has sent soccer touts to the betting windows to make Austria one of the tournament’s dark horses.

Some Austrian officials have been taken aback by the interest in the team. Even with most of Italy’s journalists in Rome, mobbing the Italian team, Polster’s star power has drawn an unusually large media contingent to the team’s remote training camp. While the official team party was holding a formal news conference inside the stunning Medici Villa in which the team has encamped, Polster was holding court on a staircase overlooking the villa’s vast lawn.

On Tuesday Polster was relaxed and engaging, even while detailing his roller-coaster ride with the Austrian public, with whom he has been reviled as a big-name slouch and, most recently, as a national hero.

Polster’s story is not exclusive to Austrian or even European athletes. As a teen-ager from Vienna, Polster emerged as a soccer prodigy. He was the youngest player in the Austrian Under-21 club championships when he established a goal-scoring record which still stands. He was 16.

Polster continued through the Austrian club system until being signed by the Italian team Torino for $1.5 million in 1987. Polster was skewered by the Italian media when he scored nine goals in 32 games his first season. Polster’s image as a jet-setter--his nickname was “Disco Toni”--didn’t help matters, nor did his occasional indifference to an acceptable work ethic.

“I had to learn a lot of things, it was not easy,” Polster said of his one year in Italy. “It is very difficult to leave your country, your family, to go to another country, to another league and language. I had to learn a lot.”

Polster said he and the Torino coach clashed and he was eventually sold to Seville, where he professes to be very happy.

That was not the case when Polster returned to Austria to play with the national team. His performance was inconsistent and there was criticism that he was selfish. Fans and sports writers were calling for his removal from the team.

The displeasure of the fans came to a head before Austria’s final World Cup qualifying match against East Germany. Hickersberger, the Austrian coach, received threatening phone calls promising to kill him if he allowed Polster to play. When Polster entered the stadium in Vienna, he was greeted with jeering whistles and boos.

The jeers turned to cheers when Polster scored all three of Austria’s goals--all with his signature left-footed kick--to give Austria a 3-0 victory. However, rather than celebrate with his teammates and the 60,000 jubilant fans, Polster retreated to the locker room. The jarring reversal of the fans’ loyalty was too much for him.

All is tranquil among the Austrians now--at least for the moment. The team’s arrival here has not been without its quasi-controversy, however.

At a news conference earlier in the week, Hickersberger was asked about a quote attributed to him that appeared in a French soccer magazine. The magazine, called France Football, quoted Hickersberger as belittling the U.S. team, saying, “I recently went to the United States, where soccer is nothing. It interests no one. Their (U.S.) presence in Italy is frankly useless.”

Hickersberger strongly denied having made such a statement, which seemed out of character for the gracious and careful coach.

He said of Polster: “He is the difference between the United States and Austria. If the United States had Polster, with that midfield, they would be favored to beat us. Since we have him, we are the favorites. He is our Maradona.”