Elemer Hirsch
Romanian footballer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elemer Hirsch (14 May 1895 – 17 May 1953) was a Romanian lawyer, figure skater, ice hockey player and a football defender, manager and referee.[2][3][4][5]
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 14 May 1895[1] | ||
| Place of birth | Ceanu Mare, Austria-Hungary[1] | ||
| Date of death | 17 May 1953 (aged 58)[1] | ||
| Place of death | Baia Mare, Romania[2] | ||
| Position | Defender[2] | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1921–1923 | CA Cluj | ||
| 1924–1926 | Universitatea Cluj | 26 | (2) |
| International career | |||
| 1922–1924 | Romania | 5 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1947–1948 | CFR Cluj | ||
| 1950–1953 | Armata Cluj | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Life and career
Hirsch was born on 14 May 1895 in Ceanu Mare, Austria-Hungary.[1] He came from a wealthy Jewish family who owned large portions of land in Beclean.[2][6] Hirsch studied law school in Budapest and Vienna, starting to work as a lawyer at age 24.[2] He started playing football at CA Cluj.[3] Several years later he moved to Universitatea Cluj, where he also played ice hockey.[3][5][6][7][8] Hirsch also competed in figure skating competitions, managing to win three Romanian national titles in 1924, 1925 and 1927, and become an international figure skating judge.[2][3][5][6] After he retired from playing football, he became a football referee, including officiating in a Romanian top-division Divizia A match.[3][9] In the 1940s following the Second Vienna Award, due to his Jewish origin, the Hungarian authorities prohibited him from working as a lawyer and deprived him of his property which was later nationalized by the Romanian communist regime.[2][4][10] Hirsch managed to escape from Cluj when the authorities wanted to send him to a Holocaust extermination camp.[2][4][6] After the end of World War II he returned to Cluj and started his coaching career at CFR.[3][6][9] Between 1947 and 1948 he was the federal captain of Romania's national team.[3] In 1950 he became coach at Armata Cluj.[2] In May 1953, after a match in Baia Mare he collapsed on his way to the team bus and goalkeeper goalkeeper Nicolae Szoboszlay tried to give him first aid, but Hirsch died in his arms.[2][6]
International career
Hirsch played in the first official match of Romania's national team, under coach Teofil Morariu in the 1922 King Alexander's Cup against Yugoslavia.[2][11][12] He bought Romania's equipment for that match with his own money.[2][6][11] Hirsch was also part of Romania's 1924 Summer Olympics squad.[3][13]
- Scores and results table. Romania's goal tally first:[12]
| International appearances | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| App | Date | Venue | Opponent | Result | Competition | |
| 1. | 8 June 1922 | Belgrade, Yugoslavia |  Yugoslavia | 2–1 | Friendly | |
| 2. | 3 September 1922 | Chernivtsi, Romania |  Poland | 1–1 | Friendly | |
| 3. | 1 July 1923 | Cluj, Romania |  Czechoslovakia | 0–6 | Friendly | |
| 4. | 2 September 1923 | Lviv, Poland | Poland | 1–1 | Friendly | |
| 5. | 20 May 1924 | Vienna, Austria |  Austria | 1–4 | Friendly | |
