Ferenc Hirzer


Ferenc Hirzer known in Hungarian as Ferenc Híres was a Hungarian football player and manager, who played as a forward during the 1910s and 1920s; he is perhaps best known for his time with Italian side Juventus. He also played for the Hungarian national football team thirty-two different times, scoring fourteen goals.

Club career

Hirzer began his football career in 1913 with local Budapest side Törekvés SE, which was put together by railroadmen. In the early 1920s, the club reached the upper parts of the Hungarian League but it was largely dominated at the time by MTK Budapest.
After around a decade playing for his hometown club, Ferenc Hizer moved to the Czech Republic to play this club football for Makkabi Brno. The following season, he moved to Germany to play for Union 03 Altona in the city of Hamburg, they finished runners-up in the Norddeutsche Liga.
For the 1925–26 season, Hirzer moved country again; this time to Italy with Turin giants Juventus. A fellow Hungarian, Jenő Károly was manager at the time and he had already brought former Toerekvés player József Viola to the club. He made his debut in October 1925 against Parma scoring a hat-trick.
Juventus were crowned champions of the Italian Football Championship for the first time in 20 years; Hirzer himself had a very impressive end of season record, scoring 35 goals in 26 games. This record still stands as the most goals scored by a Juventus player in a single season. After one more season at Juve, where they finished 3rd behind Torino and Bologna he left Italian football. Hirzer had scored a total of 50 goals in 43 games for Juventus during his time with them.
He returned to Hungary in 1927 and played for MTK Hungária back in Budapest. During the 1928–29 season, Hirzer's final season as a player, the club won the Hungarian League title. After his playing career, Hirzer returned to Italy and managed several Italian clubs until around the time of his death, the club he managed for the longest period was Salernitana in Campania.

International career

Hirzer was first called up for duty in the Hungarian national side for a match against Switzerland in June 1922, the game ended in a 1–1 draw. He represented Hungary at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, where he scored two goals in the first round 5–0 victory against Poland, in the next round however they were knocked out with a shock 2-0 defeat to Egypt. In total he scored 14 goals in 32 games for his country.

Honours

Club

Juventus
MTK Hungária