Ferenc Hirzer (21 November 1902 – 28 April 1957) known in Hungarian as Ferenc Híres was a Hungarian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

player and manager, who played as a forward during the 1910s and 1920s; he is perhaps best known for his time with Italian side

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in ...

. He also played for the

Hungarian national football team The Hungary national football team ( hu, magyar labdarúgó-válogatott) represents Hungary in men's international football and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation. The team has made 9 appearances in the FIFA World Cup and 4 appe ...

thirty-two different times, scoring fourteen goals.

Club career

Hirzer began his football career in 1913 with local

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

side

Törekvés SE Törekvés Sportegyesület is a Hungarian association football, football club from the town of Kőbánya, Budapest. History Törekvés debuted in the 1903 Nemzeti Bajnokság I, 1903 season of the Hungarian League and finished third. Name Changes ...

, which was put together by railroadmen. In the early 1920s, the club reached the upper parts of the

Hungarian League Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the assignm ...

but it was largely dominated at the time by

MTK Budapest Magyar Testgyakorlók Köre is a multi-sports club from Budapest, founded in 1888. It has sections for football, handball, basketball, volleyball, futsal, ice hockey, water polo, cycling, gymnastics, athletics, fencing, canoeing, boxing, wrestlin ...

. 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 SC Union 03 Altona is a German association football club based in the Altona district of the city of Hamburg. The football team is a department of a larger sports club which also offers handball and tennis. During the inter-war period (1906– ...

in the city of

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

, they finished runners-up in the ''Norddeutsche Liga''. For the 1925–26 season, Hirzer moved country again; this time to Italy with Turin giants

. A fellow Hungarian,

Jenő Károly Jenő Károly (15 January 1886 – 28 July 1926) was a Hungarian footballer and later manager born in Budapest. Outside his homeland he is particularly noted for being the first manager of Agnelli-era Juventus. As a player, Károly appeared ...

was manager at the time and he had already brought former Toerekvés player

József Viola József Viola (10 June 1896 – 18 August 1949) also known as Giuseppe Viola was a Hungarian football player and coach, who played as a midfielder. He is most prominent for his time in Italy and his association with clubs such as Juventus. He al ...

to the club. He made his debut in October 1925 against

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second m ...

scoring a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three w ...

were crowned champions of the

Italian Football Championship Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional ...

for the first time in 20 years; Hirzer himself had a very impressive end of season record, scoring 35 goals in astonishingly 24 games. This record for the most goals scored by a Juventus player in a single season in the best Italian league, then named

Prima Divisione Prima Divisione (''First Division'') was the name of the first level of the Italian Football Championship from 1921 to 1926. The competition was initially founded in opposition to the FIGC by the richest clubs of Northern Italy, which disagreed the ...

, has never been broken. After one more season at

, where they finished 3rd behind

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

and

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

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 the 1928–29 season, 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 Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919, commonly referred to as Salernitana, is an Italian football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recentl ...

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

International career

.Hirzer was first called up for duty in the Hungarian national side for a match against

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in June 1922, the game ended in a 1–1 draw. He represented Hungary at the

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The o ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, where he scored two goals in the first round 5–0 victory against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, in the next round however they were knocked out with a shock 2-0 defeat to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

. He also represented Hungary in the

1927-30 Central European International Cup Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

, where he became top scorer but despite his efforts, Hungary ended as fourth. In total he scored 14 goals in 32 games for his country.

Honours

Club

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

/Prima Divisione: 1925–26 MTK Hungária *

: 1928–29

International

;

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

Central European International Cup The European International Cup of Nations was an international football competition held by certain national teams from Central Europe & South Europe between 1927 and 1960.Leo Schidrowitz "Internationaler Cup", Vienna 1954 There were competitions ...

: Fourth 1927-30

Individual

: Top scorer 1927-30 * Serie A Top-scorer: 1925–26 (35 goals in Prima Divisione in 24 games!)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirzer, Ferenc 1902 births 1957 deaths Hungarian people of German descent Association football forwards Hungarian footballers Hungary international footballers Hungarian expatriate footballers Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Czechoslovakia Juventus F.C. players Serie A players Olympic footballers of Hungary Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Czechoslovakia Hungarian football managers Mantova 1911 managers U.S. Salernitana 1919 managers A.C. Ancona managers Footballers from Budapest F.S. Sestrese Calcio 1919 managers Benevento Calcio managers