{"id":35995,"date":"2026-06-11T12:28:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/austria-calls-up-midfielder-ljubicic-for-the-first-time-in-three-years-for-the-world-cup\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T12:28:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:28:28","slug":"austria-calls-up-midfielder-ljubicic-for-the-first-time-in-three-years-for-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/austria-calls-up-midfielder-ljubicic-for-the-first-time-in-three-years-for-the-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Austria calls up midfielder Ljubicic for the first time in three years for the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Dejan Ljubicic last played for Austria almost three years ago. He made a surprise comeback in the tournament due to an injury to a teammate. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">world cup<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Austria coach Ralf Rangnick called up Ljubicic late on Wednesday to replace key midfielder Christoph Baumgartner. Baumgartner injured his right thigh during the warm-up for last week&#8217;s pre-World Cup friendly against Tunisia, which required surgery.<\/p>\n<p>Ljubicic is scheduled to join the Austrian national team at a team camp in Santa Barbara on Thursday ahead of the team&#8217;s first game against Jordan on Tuesday. Austria will also play Argentina and Algeria. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">Group J<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>He scored 17 goals in all competitions for Leipzig in Germany last season and is a better defensive midfield option than Baumgartner, who remains in camp to support the team. <\/p>\n<p>Ljubicic also plays in Germany <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">schalke<\/span> The team was promoted from the second division last month.<\/p>\n<p>Ljubicic has appeared in nine games for Austria, but not in a single major competition. His last appearance was in a friendly against Moldova in September 2023, and he was not included in the World Cup qualifying squad. <\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP World Cup: <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/fifa-world-cup<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-cup-austria-dejan-ljubicic-223a98720a087445686da30944f30886\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Dejan Ljubicic last played for Austria almost three years ago. He made a surprise comeback in the tournament due to an injury to a teammate. world cup. Austria coach Ralf Rangnick called up Ljubicic late on Wednesday to replace key midfielder Christoph Baumgartner. Baumgartner injured his right thigh during the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Austria calls up midfielder Ljubicic for the first time in three years for the World Cup - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/austria-calls-up-midfielder-ljubicic-for-the-first-time-in-three-years-for-the-world-cup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Austria calls up midfielder Ljubicic for the first time in three years for the World Cup - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Dejan Ljubicic last played for Austria almost three years ago. He made a surprise comeback in the tournament due to an injury to a teammate. world cup. Austria coach Ralf Rangnick called up Ljubicic late on Wednesday to replace key midfielder Christoph Baumgartner. 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