Rudolf 'Rudy' Wetzer (17 March 1901 – 13 April 1993) was a Romanian football player and manager. He was the captain and team-coach alongside Octav Luchide, under the management of Costel Rădulescu of the first

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n side to participate in a

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

. He was of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

ethnicity. His brothers Ștefan and Ioan were also footballers.

Career

In club football, Wezter played for Juventus București (who were Romanian national champions in the 1929–1930 season), as such he was a colleague of squad members Vogl and Ladislau Raffinsky. In the 1920s. he had played for Unirea Timişoara (appearing, whilst with them, at the 1924 Olympic Games) and Chinezul before moving on. His last matches for Romania (played while he was playing for Ripensia) were in 1932; his last match came in a 2–0 defeat to

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

. Otherwise he played for

BSK Belgrade OFK Beograd ( sr-Cyrl, ОФК Београд – Омладински фудбалски клуб Београд, English: ''Belgrade Youth Football Club''), also known in English as OFK Belgrade and currently referred to as OFK Beograd Mozzart ...

Újpest FC Újpest Football Club () is a Hungary, Hungarian professional association football, football club based in Újpest, Budapest, that competes in Nemzeti Bajnokság I. Formed in 1885, Újpest reached the first division of the Hungarian League in ...

, Pécs-Baranya, Hyères FC, ILSA Timișoara and Craiovan Craiova. While playing in Hungary, he used the name Rudolf Veder, in Serbia, Rudolf Večer. When BSK brought Wetzer along another Romanian, Dezideriu Laki, to its team in 1924, they became the first foreign professionals to play in Serbia.

International career

During the

1930 FIFA World Cup The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the inaugural FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in Uruguay from 13 to 30 July 1930. FIFA, ...

Wetzer became Romania's team captain and team-coach alongside Octav Luchide, under the management of Costel Rădulescu. This was Rădulescu's decision in the weeks prior to the tournament. In May 1930 the Romanians had lost the King Alexander's Cup (a two-team event) to

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. At the time Emerich Vogl was team captain. Wetzer was brought back into the side two weeks' later for a friendly against

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

. This decision reaped considerable rewards for both Rădulescu and Wetzer as Wetzer scored 5 goals in an 8–1 victory for his team. Romania had been grouped with

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

in the tournament. They defeated the Peruvians 3–1 before losing to the eventual winners and hosts 4–0. The second of these games was held at the

Estadio Centenario Centenario Stadium (, ; , named after the Constitution of Uruguay of 1830, centenary of Constitution of Uruguay, Uruguay's Constitution) is an association football stadium in Montevideo, Uruguay. Located in the Parque Batlle, Parque Battle neig ...

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

. Wetzer was a very prolific scorer for

. He and Bodola were the top two goalscorers of the 1929–31 (first) edition of the

Balkan Cup The Balkan Cup (officially ''Coupe Balkanique de Football'') was an international association football competition contested on and off from 1929 to 1980 by countries from the Balkans region. The most successful team was Romania with four titles. ...

(which

won). They scored 7 goals each for their country in that tournament alone. In total Wetzer was to play 17 times for Romania scoring 13 goals.

Coaching career

After retiring as a footballer Wetzer became a trainer. In 1958, during a purge by the ruling national party against "revisionism and bourgeois ideology, indiscipline and descriptive anarchic elements" Wetzer became subject to an order forbidding him from "leaving the collective in which he was engaged without good reason, under penalty of being expelled from the trainers' corps.

Honours

Player

Chinezul Timișoara *

Divizia A Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

: 1925–26, 1926–27 Juventus București *

: 1929–30

Coach

Ripensia Timișoara *

: 1934–35, 1935–36

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wetzer, Rudolf 1901 births 1993 deaths Footballers from Timișoara People from the Kingdom of Hungary Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers Romanian expatriate men's footballers Men's association football forwards Olympic footballers for Romania Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Liga I players Újpest FC players Chinezul Timișoara players FC Ripensia Timișoara players FC Petrolul Ploiești players OFK Beograd players Yugoslav First League players Expatriate men's footballers in Yugoslavia Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Expatriate men's footballers in France 1930 FIFA World Cup players Romanian football managers FC Petrolul Ploiești managers CSM Reșița managers FC Dinamo București managers FC Ripensia Timișoara managers Jews from Austria-Hungary Jewish footballers Jewish Romanian sportspeople Romanian emigrants to Israel Romanian expatriate sportspeople in France Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Yugoslavia 20th-century Romanian sportsmen