Walter Rositzky

Walter Rositzky
Born	Walter Cäsar Max Rositzky (1889-03-16)March 16, 1889 Hamburg, Germany
Died	(1953-05-26)May 26, 1953 (64 years) Hamburg, Germany
Nationality	German
Occupation	Football player

Walter Rositzky ((1889-03-16)March 16, 1889, Hamburg, Germany - (1953-05-26)May 26, 1953, Hamburg) was a German football player, who played the positions of midfielder and forward. He played for FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Professional career

"Rositzky", as it appears in his German military record Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Abt. Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe, 456 E Nr. 9851, was a midfielder and right winger. He played for F. C. Barcelona in 1911-13 before leaving it to play for Real Madrid.

Rositzky was the fifth player in history who left the Catalans for Madrid. In the shirt of the Blaugrana he played 55 games and scored 5 goals, won the club championship of Catalonia, and won twice the King's Cup and the Pyrenees Cup. He remained in Madrid until 1915, when the outbreak of World War I suspended his career. He left Spain, was drafted into the German army and never returned to the Iberian Peninsula, locating himself in his native town of Hamburg. After 1923 there are no further news about his life. It's believed that he probably died during one of the battles for independence; the details of his death are unknown.

International affiliation

During the time in which he played professionally, he was commonly misspelled as "Rozitsky" and referred to be born in Poland, despite it was not a sovereign nation. At the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in the gallery of all the Real Madrid players, he was also inscribed as a Polonia player (meaning Polish). Not the first Pole playing for the club, but the first German, took pride at being placed next to Santiago Bernabéu Yeste, with whom he performed on the same team.