Vilmos Sipos

Vilmos Sipos, also known as Vilim Šipoš and Willy Sipos (24 January 1914 – 25 July 1978) was a Hungarian football player and manager. He played for several important clubs in a number of countries, having represented at national level both Yugoslavia and Hungary.

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

Vilmos Sipos
Personal information
Date of birth (1914-01-24)24 January 1914
Place of birth Wilhelmsburg, Austria-Hungary
Date of death 25 July 1978(1978-07-25) (aged 64)[1]
Place of death Paris, France
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
0000–1930 Građanski Sr.Mitrovica
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1930–1931 Jugoslavija Belgrade 6 (1)
1932–1935 Građanski Zagreb 35 (8)
1935–1936 Young Boys 24 (?)
1936–1937 FC Sète 15 (2)
1937–1939 Građanski Zagreb 25 (6)
1939–1942 Rapid București
1942–1946 Ferencváros 121 (32)
1946–1947 Bologna 9 (0)
1947–1948 Correggio
1948–1949 Grosseto 22 (3)
1949–1951 Arsenale Messina 34 (?)
FC Jeunesse Oran
International career
1934–1939 Yugoslavia 13 (1)
1945–1946 Hungary 2 (0)
Managerial career
FC Jeunesse Oran
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Career

Born in Wilhelmsburg,[2] Austria, ethnically Hungarian,[3] he begin playing with SK Građanski Sremska Mitrovica a local club in the town where he was living since young, in Vojvodina, still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire back then. There he was spotted by Yugoslav SK Jugoslavija that offered him to move to Belgrade in 1930. After one season he moved to their Yugoslav First League main rivals at that time, Zagreb's HŠK Građanski where he will play until 1934.[4] By 1934 his skills convinced the Yugoslav Football Association to offer him to play for the Yugoslavia national team, having debuted on 18 March 1934 in a match against Bulgaria, a 2–1 win.

Having represented two of the most notable clubs in Yugoslavia and having become national team player, foreign interest grow, and in summer 1934 he moved to Swiss BSC Young Boys where he will play two seasons until 1936. That year he moved to one of the most prominent French clubs from that period, FC Sète. In the Ligue 1 he will play a total of 15 matches having scored twice. In this period he became a regular in the Yugoslavia national team. In 1938 Zagreb's HŠK Građanski, with the financial effort of their vice-president Gustav Maceljski, who paid 100.000 Francs to Sète, brought him back, but after one season they sold him to FC Rapid București. On 7 May 1939, he played his last match for the Yugoslavia national team, against Romania, in a 0–1 defeat.

By the beginning of the Second World War and the occupation of Yugoslavia, Sipos was playing in Romania. During this period he won 4 consecutive Romanian Cups, in 1939, 1940, 1941 and 1942. Interest on him grew again, and he moved to Hungarian Ferencváros in 1942. The club had been Hungarian league champions in 1940 and 1941, but Sipos will have to wait until 1944 to win the national title which was an unofficial one because the championship was unfinished. Being an ethnic Hungarian, and with Yugoslavia occupied, not competing, and with an uncertain future by then, Sipos was invited to play for the Hungarian national team making his debut in 1945.

At the end of the war in 1945 and with Hungary becoming a communist country, Ferencváros finished in a disappointing 5th place in 1946. Sipos decided to move abroad, and in summer 1946 he accepted an offer from Italian Bologna FC, coached by the Hungarian József Viola. The club had dominated the Serie A by the late 1930s winning 4 titles between 1935 and 1941, but that season, 1946–47 Bologna finished 5th. Sipos left next summer, but stayed in Italy where he will play with several clubs such as Correggio, Grosseto and Arsenale Messina.[5] Before retiring he played one season in French Algeria with FC Jeunesse Oran where he was simultaneously the main coach and player.

After Algeria he moved to France where he kept playing exhibition matches until 1952 with IRO Hungaria, a team formed by Hungarian immigrants. Because many data from this period is lost or unavailable, it is believed that his career data is still incomplete. After retiring from football he moved to Paris where he lived until his death in 1978.

National team

Being considered one of the first professional players in Yugoslav football, he played a total of 13 matches for the Yugoslavia national team between 1934 and 1939, having scored once, the only goal in the defeat against Czechoslovakia by 1–3, played on 28 May 1938.

Beside the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Sipos played two matches for the Hungarian national team. The first was in Budapest against Romania in 1945, a smashing 7–2 win, where Sipos played in the attack alongside Nándor Hidegkuti, Gyula Zsengellér, Ferenc Puskás and István Nyers, and the second was in Vienna in 1946 against Austria, in a 2–3 defeat, with Sipos playing as right winger.

Honours
Ferencváros
Rapid București

References
  1. "Vilim Šipoš". sport.de. 21 October 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  2. Some websites wrongly claim that he was born in Sremska Mitrovica where he lived as youngster. He was actually born on a boat where his mother worked, that travelled through the Danube river having been recorded Wilhelmsburg as his birthplace because it was the place the boat was stationed at the moment of his birth.
  3. Vilmos Sipos at RSSSF
  4. Vilmos Sipos at exyufudbal.in.rs
  5. Vilmos Sipos at EnciclopediadelCalcio.it (in Italian)
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