Ernő Egri Erbstein

Ernő Egri Erbstein (Hungarian: Erbstein Ernő), also known as Ernest and Ernesto Erbstein (13 May 1898 – 4 May 1949), was a Hungarian football player and manager. He carried out his footballing activities in several countries, and was most noted for his association with Italian football.

The native form of this personal name is Erbstein Ernő. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Ernő Egri Erbstein
Egri Erbstein c. 1938
Personal information
Full name Ernő Egri Erbstein
Date of birth (1898-05-13)13 May 1898
Place of birth Nagyvárad, Austria-Hungary
Date of death 4 May 1949(1949-05-04) (aged 50)
Place of death Superga, Italy
Position(s) Wing half
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1915–1922 Budapesti AK
1922 Hakoah Arad
1922–1924 Budapesti AK
1924–1925 Olympia Fiume 18 (5)
1925–1926 Vicenza 28 (2)
1926–1928 Husos
Managerial career
1928–1929 Bari
1929–1930 Nocerina
1930–1932 Cagliari
1932–1933 Bari
1933–1938 Lucchese
1938–1939 Torino
1946–1949 Torino (technical director)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Biography
Erbstein, first on the right with the Grande Torino

Erbstein carried out the majority of his playing career with Budapesti AK, with whom he spent almost a decade, either side of a brief spell with Hakoah Arad in 1922. After first getting a taste for Italian football with Olympia Fiume (Fiume was the Italian name for the present-day Croatian city of Rijeka) he moved to Vicenza for a season.[1]

As a manager Bari gave him his first chance, but his forward thinking tactics were ineffective with the group of players at that time, but the fast flowing attractive football caught the eye of the Italian public despite Bari's relegation which saw him relieved of his duties. Short spells at Nocerina, Cagliari and Bari again before moving on to Lucchese where he spent five years gaining promotion to 'Serie A' during this period. Erbstein moved to Torino after that, but because of World War II and the fact that he was Jewish meant that the implementation of the 'Manifesto of Race' which stripped Jewish people of their right to work. Despite these restrictions, he continued to offer his advice through an unofficial role, before leaving Italy and returned to Hungary when it became too unsafe to remain.

He was sent to a Nazi forced labor camp near Budapest. He escaped in December 1944, just before he was about to be sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, together with Béla Guttmann, another famous Jewish-Hungarian player and coach.[2][3][4][5]

After the war Erbstein rejoined Torino, this time in the capacity of a trainer; this was one of the most noted spells in Italian football where they secured the Serie A title. During this successful period, this Torino side became known as Grande Torino.[6] Erbstein (as technical director) along with Englishman Leslie Lievesley (as trainer) were co-managers during the 1948–49 season. Torino were defending champions of Italy and on track to progress further. Disaster struck on 4 May 1949 when Erbstein and the majority of the Torino team died in the Superga air disaster.[7]

Honours

Technical director
Torino

Manager
Lucchese
Torino

Individual

References
  1. Bliss, Dominic (2014). Erbstein: The triumph and tragedy of football's forgotten pioneer.
  2. Duggan, Keith. "The Greatest Comeback review: a sombre salute to Béla Guttmann". The Irish Times.
  3. "Holocaust Memorial Day Trust | Béla Guttmann".
  4. "Revolutionary coach who survived Nazi labour camp to become world's first superstar manager | Sportal - World Sports News".
  5. Alan McDougall (2020). Contested Fields; A Global History of Modern Football
  6. "Searching for Erbstein - TheInsideLeft". theinsideleft.com. Archived from the original on 14 November 2014.
  7. Masters, James (3 March 2015). "Ernő Egri Erbstein: Tragic tale of Jewish soccer hero who defied Nazis". CNN. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  8. Bliss, Dominic (2014). Erbstein: The triumph and tragedy of football's forgotten pioneer.
  9. Bliss, Dominic (2014). Erbstein: The triumph and tragedy of football's forgotten pioneer.
  10. "Museo del Toro, sabato la "Hall of fame granata": premiati Annoni, Policano e Bruno". Torino News (in Italian). 2 December 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  11. "Da Zola a Mourinho e Zidane: le nuove leggende della Hall of fame del calcio italiano". Sky Italia (in Italian). 16 March 2023. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
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