Ferenc Hirzer

Ferenc Hirzer

Personal information
Date of birth	(1902-11-21)21 November 1902
Place of birth	Budapest, Hungary
Date of death	28 April 1957(1957-04-28) (aged 54)
Place of death	Trento, Italy
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1913–1923	Törekvés SE
1923–1924	Makkabi Brno
1924–1925	Union 03 Altona
1925–1927	Juventus	43	(50)
1927–1929	MTK Hungária
International career
1922–1932	Hungary	32	(14)
Managerial career
1935–1936	Mantova Sportiva
1936–1938	Salernitana
1938–1939	Anconitana
1940–1941	Salernitana
1946–1947	Sestrese
1954–1955	Aosta
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ferenc Hirzer (21 November 1902 – 28 April 1957) known in Hungarian as Ferenc Híres was a Hungarian football player during the 1910s and 1920s, he is perhaps best known for his time with Italian side Juventus. He also played for the Hungarian national football team thirty-two different times, scoring fourteen goals.

Football career

Hirzer began his football career in 1913 with local Budapest side Törekvés SE, which was put together by railroadmen. In the early 1920s, the club reached the upper parts of the Hungarian League but it was largely dominated at the time by MTK Budapest.

After around a decade playing for his hometown club, Ferenc Hizer moved to the Czech Republic to play this club football for Makkabi Brno. The following season he moved to Germany to play for Union 03 Altona in the town of Hamburg, they finished runners-up in the Norddeutschen Liga.

For the 1925–26 season, Hirzer moved country again; this time to Italy with Turin giants Juventus. A fellow Hungarian, Jenő Károly was manager at the time and he had already brought former Toerekvés player József Viola to the club. He made his debut in October 1925 against Parma scoring a hat-trick.

Juventus were crowned champions of the Italian Football Championship for the first time in 20 years; Hirzer himself had a very impressive end of season record, scoring 35 goals in 26 games. This record still stands as the most goals scored by a Juventus player in a single season. After one more season at Juve, where they finished 3rd behind Torino and Bologna he left Italian football. Hirzer had scored a total of 50 goals in 43 games for Juventus during his time with them.

He returned to Hungary in 1927 and played for MTK Hungária back in Budapest. During 1928-29, Hirzer's final season as a player, the club won the Hungarian League title. After his playing career, Hirzer returned to Italy and managed several Italian clubs until around the time of his death, the club he managed for the longest period was Salernitana in Campania.

International

Hirzer was first called up for duty in the Hungarian national side for a match against Switzerland in June 1922, the game ended in a 1-1 draw. He represented Hungary at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, where he scored two goals in the first round 5-0 victory against Poland, in the next round however they were knocked out with a shock 2-0 defeat to Egypt. In total he scored 14 goals in 32 games for his country.

Honours

• 1925–26 Serie A (Juventus)
• 1928–29 Hungarian League (MTK Hungária)