Like in a fairy tale: South Tyrolean makes it into the NFL team

The name Maximilian Pircher was hardly known to any sports fan in South Tyrol until he first made a name for himself at the end of last year. As one of eleven players worldwide, the 21-year-old from Brixen made it to the crucial phase of the Pathway Program. A kind of anteroom of the National Football League (NFL), the most economically powerful sports competition of all with more than 15 billion US dollars in annual sales. At that time he said opposite SportNews . “Of course I want to make it to the NFL. A dream would come true.” ( Click here for the detailed story ). This Tuesday he took a significant step closer to making that dream come true.

As one of only four players in the International Player Pathway Program (IPPP), he was selected for the NFL and assigned to the 2018 Super Bowl finalist, the Los Angeles Rams. In California he now has the opportunity to train for a whole year and fight for a place in the squad. Pircher plays the position of left tackle, which plays a key role in the strategic direction of a football team. “I would like to thank everyone who supported me” Max Pircher After his election was announced, the South Tyrolean expressed his joy in a social media post: “I can’t wait for it to get started. I would like to thank everyone who has supported me on this path, I will continue to work hard on myself.” Pircher will therefore no longer be available to his parent club, the Hildesheim Invaders, for the time being. The (temporary) highlight of a Blitz career In his only three-year career, the economics student first made it to the top German club and the Swarco Raiders Tirol, first becoming a fixture in Italy's national team and finally making it to the NFL's pathway program. The youngster, who weighs 140 kilograms over a height of 2 meters, was previously active as a footballer at ASV Milland and as a handball player at SSV Brixen. It was only after attending a game with his high school teacher at the time that Pircher became interested in American football. That was in 2018.

Before his USA adventure, national player Max Pircher was active in Hildesheim and Innsbruck.

Before Pircher, almost a dozen American football players from Italy made it into the NFL; he would currently be the second Azzurro in the elite league alongside Giorgio Tavecchio from the Tennessee Titans. Sandro Platzgummer, a North Tyrolean, is also under contract there. He earned a commitment to the New York Giants last year as an IPPP training guest and is now hoping for his first minutes of action.

This year, the German Aaron Donkor (Seattle), Alfredo Gutierrez from Mexico (San Francisco) and the Austrian Bernhard Seikovits (Arizona) also made it to an NFL club through the IPPP program. Like Max Pircher, they can all dream more than ever of being involved in the absolute football elite.

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Like in a fairy tale: South Tyrolean makes it into the NFL team

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Football

Italy

International leagues

International

Winter sports

Tennis

Other sports

Motorsport

Cycling

Watersports

Events

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Like in a fairy tale: South Tyrolean makes it into the NFL team

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