The 1922 King Alexander's Cup () was the first edition of the Friendship Cup. It was a single-game tournament in 1922 and the first official match of the national

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team of

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

Pre-match

The trophy was named after

Alexander I Alexander I may refer to: * Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC * Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus * Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome * Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...

, the King of Yugoslavia. The match was organized to celebrate the wedding of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia with the

Princess Maria of Romania Marie of Romania (1875–1938) was Queen of Romania, wife of King Ferdinand I and grandmother of King Michael I Marie of Romania or Maria of Romania may also refer to: * Princess Maria of Romania (1870–1874), daughter of King Carol I * Maria of Y ...

, the event being announced by the Romanian newspaper, ''Ecoul Sportiv'' on 28 May 1922: "On the occasion of the marriage of His Majesty King Alexander I with Her Royal Highness Princess Maria of Romania, His Majesty was pleased to donate a cup that will bear his name, to encourage the progress of the football-association sport in his country and in the country of his wife. This cup will be a challenge and will go definitely to the country which will win it three times in a row or five times in total." The game took place at Stadion SK Jugoslavija in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

Kingdom of SCS The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 unt ...

(today part of

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

), and ended with a 2–1 win for

. Three kings were at the game: Alexander I of Yugoslavia,

Ferdinand I of Romania Ferdinand (Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad; 24 August 1865 – 20 July 1927), nicknamed ''Întregitorul'' ("the Unifier"), was King of Romania from 1914 until his death in 1927. Ferdinand was the second son of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern and ...

and

George II of Greece George II ( el, Γεώργιος Βʹ, ''Geórgios II''; 19 July Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S.:_7_July.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>O.S.:_7_July">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html"_;"title="nowiki/ ...

. Romania's equipment for that match was bought by one of its players, Elemer Hirsch and it was black and white, it is believed that the reason those colors were chosen is that Hirsch was a fan of

Universitatea Cluj Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj (), commonly known as Universitatea Cluj or simply as U Cluj, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I, the first ...

who had the same colors.

Match

Post-match

The Romanian newspaper, ''Ecoul Sportiv'' wrote after the game: "The Romanian representative team wins the Golden Cup of His Majesty King Alexander, beating Jugo-Slavia 2–1. King Alexander's Cup will be exhibited for a week in Bucharest and then it will be sent to Transylvania to be seen by all sportsmen". Ecoul Sportiv also wrote: "The game of the Romanian national team was a true masterpiece, all the players without exception were good, they combined beautifully with a lot of precision, no shot was taken without thought". The Yugoslavian newspaper, ''Politika'' wrote after the game: "Yesterday's international match between the Kingdom of Romania and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, counting for the Cup of His Majesty King Alexander I surprised not only the host players, but the entire sports world, which did not doubt the success of our national team".

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:King Alexander's Cup, 1922

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

1921–22 in Yugoslav football 1921–22 in Romanian football International association football matches Romania–Yugoslavia relations