Ernest Erbstein

Ernő Erbstein or Ernest Egri - Erbstein ( born May 13, 1898 in Nagyvarad, Austria - Hungary, † May 4, 1949 in Superga, Italy) was a Hungarian football player and football coach. As a consultant and trainer, he has been instrumental in the success of the Grande Torino in the 1940s.

Playing career

Erbsteins football career began when he moved to Budapest for his education and there joined the football section of the club Budapesti Atlétikai. When BAK he debuted with 17 years in 1915, where he was mainly in the rotor row to use. The club was a medium-sized, which played some cases also against relegation. In 1921, the BAC could no longer hold in the top division and played from then in the second division, where not succeed in subsequent years, the resurgence. Erbstein remained until 1924 with the club before he, like many Hungarian players joined this time abroad.

He first played one season with Olimpia Fiume in since the Treaty of Rome to Italy belonging to the port city. In 1925 he moved to the second lists AC Vicenza, where he also played only one season before the provisions of the Charter di Viareggio prohibited the use of non-Italian -born players in the national football operation.

Erbstein moved to Palestine, where an association of Hungarian-Jewish professional players had been founded. With this team, he also took several months of U.S. tour in 1927.

Coaching career

Returned to Europe, Erbstein 1928 began his coaching career in Italy ( foreign coaches were opposed to foreign players still allows ). First, he oversaw the unterklassigen AS Bari and ASG Nocerina before he 1930 CS Cagliari took over and in the first year rising in the B series.

After another season in Bari Erbstein 1933 coach of the U.S. Lucchese Libertas, with which he ascended within three years from the third to the first division and the Tuscan club established with a seventh place in the middle of the Serie A. When he brought the Lucchese later Italian world champion goalie Aldo Olivieri and out as Erbstein 1938 got the offer to take over as coach at AC Turin, he took the player to his new club with.

In Turin Erbstein quickly gained the confidence of the club president Ferruccio Novo and finished at the end of the season in second place. With the introduction of the Italian racial laws Erbstein was forced to leave the country and he returned to Budapest, where he remained but in constant contact with Novo and advised him especially in player purchases. The Torino built around the signings Valentino Mazzola and Ezio Loik on a team that should dominate the Italian 1940s and as Grande Torino went down in history.

After the end of World War II Erbstein returned to Turin, where he first served as a consultant and then as technical director of the team that brought three championships in a row during this time. In 1948, he took on, along with the Englishman Leslie Lievesley again the training of the team. This season succeeded the championship title and in May 1949 the team played a friendly match in Lisbon. On the return flight, the aircraft came in to land in thick fog from off course and crashed on the hill of Superga. Erbstein came as the entire team in this plane crash of Superga killed.