Wilhelm Huberts (22 February 1938 – 4 March 2022), also known as Willi Huberts, was an Austrian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a midfielder.

Club career

Huberts began his career in his hometown with ASK Voitsberg. From there he was transferred to Grazer AK, who got him to the Stadion an der Körösistraße in 1955. Through his immense technical skills and his scoring qualities he became a supporter's favourite in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

. When ''GAK'' played a couple of friendlies in New York in 1959, two of them against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

, it caused Huberts who was a midfielder, to finally convince New York Hungarians of the

German American Soccer League The Cosmopolitan Soccer League is a regional soccer league consisting of semi-pro and amateur teams based in and around New York City. Established in 1923, it is one of the oldest soccer leagues in the United States and has contributed greatly ...

to sign him in 1960. With this club he won

National Challenge Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country. The 2023 U.S. O ...

(today Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup) in 1962. In 1963 Huberts joined

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

in Germany. In this year the Bundesliga was founded and the ''Eagles'' from Hesse were a founding member. Huberts was one of only four foreign players in German pro football, and the only Austrian. In the 1960s team of Frankfurt he was a key player. With the jersey number 10 he scored 80 times for the boys from Main. For the 1970–71 season he returned to Austria and joined

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (; known in English as Austria Vienna, and usually shortened to Austria (German: Österreich) in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the mos ...

and eventually his home club Grazer AK in 1971 and retired in 1975.

International career

Huberts was capped four times for the Austria national team between 1959 and 1960, scoring in his debut in a 2–0 win against Belgium. With the club change to New York came travel limitations, he was no longer selected for Austria and even when he joined

he never played again for the national team due to the politics of the clubs not to release foreign players except for big tournaments.

Personal life

Huberts died on 4 March 2022, at the age of 84.Fußballlegende Willi Huberts gestorben

Honours

New York Hungarians *

: 1962 Eintracht Frankfurt * DFB-Pokal: runners-up 1963–64 *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

: 1966–67 Austria Wien *

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

: 1971

References

External links

Wilhelm Huberts
at Austria Archive
Wilhelm Huberts
at Fussballportal * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Huberts, Wilhelm 1938 births 2022 deaths People from Voitsberg Austrian footballers Footballers from Styria Men's association football midfielders Austria men's international footballers Austrian Football Bundesliga players German-American Soccer League players Bundesliga players Grazer AK players Eintracht Frankfurt players FK Austria Wien players A.S. Roma players Austrian football managers Kapfenberger SV managers LASK managers DSV Leoben managers Austrian expatriate footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Austrian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy