Books devoted to recalling past glories in the sport of flag football are rare. Rarer still are memories of the six-time world champion United States men’s national team being beaten to the gold medal in international competition.

The book Quarterback, now available in English having originally been published in German, revisits the Austrian triumph over USA at the 2012 IFAF Flag Football World Championships through the eyes of Philipp Pölzl who led his nation to victory from under center.

As the book’s subtitle promises, Pölzl navigates his way ‘From the First Throw to the World Championship Title in Flag Football’ while traversing a path that will be familiar to most international fans and players of any form of American football who discovered a love for the game. Many have been introduced to the sport by a friend and their interest accelerates during a visit to the home of college football and the NFL, so Pölzl’s story is not entirely unique. But his and Austria’s achievement in 2012 was impressive and he’s among the first to have put pen to paper to share the progression of his journey.

Quarterback sets the tone for the crux of the story (spoiler alert: Austria’s ultimate triumph over the United States) by placing the reader in Pölzl’s shoes, or cleats, as the national anthems play and the crowd rises collectively from the seats, anticipating a classic gold medal game and a potential upset. ‘It’s my Wimbledon, my Hahnenkamm race, my Monaco Grand Prix, my Super Bowl,’ he declares. The start of the 2012 World Championship might only be a few moments away and turning the page the reader might expect to dive deeper into the game’s details, but there is an important and appealing backstory to tell first.

Pölzl walks us through his family origins in Upper Styrian, in the beautiful mountain village of Seewiesen, where his grandfather settled having been injured at the WWII Battle of Stalingrad. As with any autobiography, he details a personal life touched by a multitude of sports before flag football becomes his passion.

The moment to which many American football enthusiasts from around the world can relate comes when he is exposed to the sport unexpectedly. In his case a friend asks him to bet on whether the Denver Broncos or Green Bay Packers will win Super Bowl XXXII. Like many across the European continent in those years, and still today, Pölzl stays up all night to watch the NFL finale, but having backed the beaten Packers, he loses the bet and owes his friend Heinz a beer before ignoring the unusual sport for the next couple of years.

Watching the Music City Miracle leads to Titans quarterback Steve McNair becoming Pölzl’s favorite player and then spending time at Texas Tech encourages him to play several sports, among them flag football.

What follows is a charming journey through a flag career that begins with a baffling call in his direction of ‘Trips Left X Fly Y Post Z Hook on Two,’ asking where he can get a helmet for the flag game, and a collision on his first flag football play to ultimately becoming a world champion.

‘Personally, in the spring of 2004, I was still about as far away from the international stage as a random small-club soccer player is from the Champions League’ is how Pölzl describes his initial foray into flag football as he forms his local team, the Styrian Studs.

The evolution of a new generation of Austrian flag football national team players, including how the AFBOE federation spared no expense in aiding the cause, builds up nicely to the crescendo of the IFAF World Championship final.

And from there we know who takes home the gold medal. But the nail-biting recollection, which sees the game tied multiple times, is well worth reliving as Austria humble an American whose quarterback is Jorge Cascudo, who has since coached USA to multiple triumphs, the latest over Austria in Finland this past summer.

A movie version of the book would end at this point of victory, with Philipp Pölzl carried off into the Swedish sunset on the shoulders of his teammates. The book continues to close the chapter on his playing career as he later retires to spend time with his family.

Quarterback is available in German from www.goforgold.at and through Amazon in both languages.