he played 19 times for the austrian national football team and scored 17 goals. his first match was on 27 may 1951 (4:0 versus scotland) in the qualification match for the fifa world cup 1954 versus portugal he scored 5 goals for the 9:1 win. he was member of the 1954 fifa world cup squad which reached the third place. during the tournament he scored six goals and was together with max morlock of germany and josef hügi of switzerland second in the scorer list. during his time abroad he was not player of the team. but in 1960 he played his last match versus france (2:4) where he also scored his last goal for the team. so he was the first national football team player coming from sv austria salzburg.