Ernő Egri Erbstein (''Hungarian: Erbstein Ernő''), also known as Ernest and Ernesto Erbstein (13 May 18984 May 1949), was a Hungarian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player manager from

Nagyvárad ) , blank2_name_sec1 = Patron saint , blank2_info_sec1 = Saint LadislausOradea Oradea (, , ; german: Großwardein ; hu, Nagyvárad ) is a city in Romania, located in Crișana, a sub-region of Transylvania. The county seat, seat of Bihor County, Oradea is one of the most important economic, social and cultural centers in the ...

, in Romania. He carried out his footballing activities in several countries, he was most noted for his association with

Italian football Football ( it, calcio ) is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italy national football team is considered to be one of the best national teams in the world. They have won the FIFA World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing only Bra ...

Biography

Erbstein carried out the majority of his playing career with

Budapesti AK Budapesti Atlétikai Klub, also known as BAK, is a Hungarian football club from the town of Budapest that competes in the BLSZ III., url=http://budapesti-atletikai-klub.hu History Budapesti Atlétikai Klub was founded in 1900 by a group of athl ...

, 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 Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

) he moved to

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a th ...

for a season. As a manager

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

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 Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

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 Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

after that, but because of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the fact that he was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

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 ''Arbeitslager'' () is a German language word which means labor camp. Under Nazism, the German government (and its private-sector, Axis, and collaborator partners) used forced labor extensively, starting in the 1930s but most especially durin ...

near Budapest. He escaped in December 1944, just before he was about to be sent to

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, together with

Béla Guttmann Béla Guttmann (; 27 January 1899 – 28 August 1981) was a Hungarian footballer and coach. He was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, and was Jewish. He was deported by the Nazis to a Nazi slave labor camp where he was tortured; he survived the ...

, another famous Jewish-Hungarian player and coach.Alan McDougall (2020)
Contested Fields; A Global History of Modern Football
/ref> 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 The Grande Torino was the historic Italian football team of Torino Football Club in the 1940s, five-time champions of Italy, whose players were the backbone of the Italy national team and died on 4 May 1949 in the plane crash known as the Superg ...

''. Erbstein (as ''technical director'') along with Englishman

Leslie Lievesley Leslie Lievesley (July 1911 – 4 May 1949) was an English football player and manager. During his playing career, his regular position was at full-back. Born in Staveley, Derbyshire, Lievesley started his career as an amateur with Rossingt ...

(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 The Superga air disaster occurred on 4 May 1949, when a Fiat G.212 of Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines), carrying the entire Torino football team (popularly known as the ''Grande Torino''), crashed into the retaining wall at the back of th ...

Honours

Technical director

;Torino *

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

: 1947–48

Manager

;Lucchese *

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

: 1935–36 ;Torino *

: 1948–49

Individual

Torino F.C. Hall of Fame This is a list of Torino FC players who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame Granata. History The Hall of Fame Granata (''granata'' is the English for "maroon", the club's traditional colour) was created by the Museo del Grande Torino e della ...

: 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erbstein, Ernest 1898 births 1949 deaths Romanian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Hungarian footballers Jewish footballers U.S. Fiumana players HNK Rijeka players L.R. Vicenza players Hungarian football managers S.S.C. Bari managers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate football managers in Italy Jewish escapees from Nazi concentration camps Association football wing halves Victims of the Superga air disaster