Ferdinand Wesely (30 May 1897 – 19 March 1949) was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and coach. He was son of the shoemaker Jakob Wesely (d. 1918) and Antonie. As a first class seaman, he was assigned to the battleship SMS Zrínyi in August 1914 and served on various ships in the Navy throughout the First World War. As of 1929 he was married to the merchant's daughter Martha née Hörmann.

Club career

The left winger began his career at Rennweger SV in 1912 and in 1920 he switched to

Rapid Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to: Hydrological features * Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow * Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States * Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City Sport ...

, Austria's leading football club at the time. He played 11 years with the club and won Austrian Championship in 1920–21, 1922–23, 1928–29 and 1929–30. He won the

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for a record 27th time. Wo ...

in the season 1926–27 and the

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called Coupe de l'Europe Centrale, Mitteleuropäischer Pokal or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European association football, football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the suc ...

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be on J ...

. In summer 1931 Wesely moved to Switzerland and joined St. Gallen. During his time in St. Gallen he coached the Lustenau gymnastics association. Wesely joined

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

's first team for their 1932–33 season under head coach

Karl Kurz Karl Kurz (born 21 November 1898; died 26 November 1933 in Basel, Switzerland) was an Austrian football player and manager. Playing career Club Kurz played mostly as a winger but by the end of his career he had been deployed as a central midfield ...

. The two knew each other well from

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and had played together in the Austria national team. Two further Austrians were also in the squad, Otto Haftl and Josef Chloupek. After playing in four test games Wesley played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game at the

Landhof The Landhof was a sports stadium in the district Basel-Wettstein in Kleinbasel, Basel. It was the former and first home stadium of FC Basel. It is mentioned for the first time in a chronicle in the second half of the 18th century as a ''nice s ...

on 28 August 1932. He also scored his first goal in the same game. In fact he scored a hat-trick as Basel won 6–3 against Etoile Carouge. Wesley scored his next goal in the next match as Basel won 3–2 against

La Chaux-de-Fonds La Chaux-de-Fonds (; archaic ) is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura Mountains at an altitude of 992 metres, a few kilometres south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne, Biel/Bienne, and Fribourg, ...

. In the return game against LCdF Wesley scored a brace. Basel ended their group stage in second position and so had to play a play-off against the second placed team in the other group, this play-off was lost 4–3. Wesley played in all 14 league matches and in the play-off, scoring nine goals. In the 1932–33

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

Basel advanced 4–2 against Concordia Basel, 3–0 against Blue Stars Zürich, 3–2 against

AC Bellinzona AC Bellinzona is a Swiss football club based in Bellinzona. It was founded in 1904, and won the Swiss Super League in 1948. After being folded in 2013 declaring bankruptcy, the team played the Ticino Group of 2.Liga, the sixth tier of the Sw ...

, 4–2 against

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and in the semi-final 5–3 against Lausanne-Sport to the final. Basel beat Grasshopper Club 4–3 in the final. Basel started the following season well, winning six of the first nine games, suffering only one defeat. But season was over shadowed by the death of trainer

. Following the death, the team was disorientated, losing five of the next seven matches and thus losing contact with the two top teams. Basel finished the season in fifth position in the table. Wesley played in 19 of the 30 league games. Wesley then left the club. During his time with the club, Wesley played a total of 71 games for Basel scoring a total of 35 goals. 34 of these games were in the Nationalliga, seven in the Challenge National, nine in the

and 21 were friendly games. He scored 17 goals in the domestic league, two in the Challenge National, six in the cup and the other 10 were scored during the test games. Wesley moved on to play and work for

FC Nordstern Basel FC Nordstern Basel is a football team from Basel, Switzerland. Currently playing in the Swiss 8th division, FC Nordstern Basel has spent 35 seasons in the Swiss top flight, last in 1982. They were runners-up in the Swiss league in 1924, 1927, and ...

as player coach. In 1935 he also worked for

FC Concordia Basel FC Concordia Basel is a Swiss football club based in Basel. The club was founded in 1907. They play in the 2. Liga Interregional (fifth level), and their home stadium was Rankhof Stadium until the 2008–09 season. Concordia is ranking as the ...

as coach. In 1936 Wesely moved to Belgium for a while, where he worked, among other things, as a trainer of

Beerschot Koninklijke Beerschot Voetbalclub Antwerpen (), or simply Beerschot, is a Belgian professional football club located in Antwerp, that competes in the top tier Pro League after promotion from second tier in 2023–24 season. In 2013, KFCO Wil ...

in Antwerpen. He worked as a physical education teacher in elementary schools. After the end of the Second World War, Wesely returned to Vienna and first joined his club of origin Rennweg and then SC Red Star Penzing, before succumbing to a heart attack on 19 March 1949.

International career

From 1922 Wesley played regularly in the national team under coach

Hugo Meisl Hugo Meisl (16 November 1881 – 17 February 1937), brother of the journalist Willy Meisl, was the multi-lingual football coach of the famous Austrian ' Wunderteam' of the early 1930s, as well as a referee. Background Meisl was born to a Jewi ...

. In the team, he shone especially in games against arch-rivals Hungary, against whom he scored 8 of his total 17 international goals.

Honours

;Rapid Vienna *Austrian Champion: 1920–21, 1922–23, 1928–29, 1929–30 *

: 1926–27 *

;Basel *

: 1932-33

References

Sources

* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage

External links

Beerschot coaches
1897 births 1949 deaths Austrian men's footballers Austria men's international footballers Men's association football forwards SK Rapid Wien players FC Basel players FC Nordstern Basel players FC St. Gallen players Beerschot A.C. managers FC Nordstern Basel managers FC Concordia Basel managers Austrian football managers {{austria-footy-forward-stub