László Vasile Gergely ( hu, Gergely László; born 28 October 1941) is a

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 ...

n former

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 and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Club career

Vasile Gergely was born on 28 October 1941 in

Baia Mare Baia Mare ( , ; hu, Nagybánya; german: Frauenbach or Groß-Neustadt; la, Rivulus Dominarum) is a municipality along the Săsar River, in northwestern Romania; it is the capital of Maramureș County. The city lies in the region of Maramur ...

and started playing football in

Divizia B The Liga 2, most often spelled as Liga II, is the second level of the Romanian football league system. The league changed its name from Divizia B just before the start of the 2006–07. It is currently sponsored by Casa Pariurilor, a betting c ...

at local club, CSM Baia Mare. Gergely made his Divizia A debut under coach

Gheorghe Ola Gheorghe Ola (10 October 1928 – 1995) was a Romanian footballer and manager. Honours Manager ;Romania * UEFA European Under-18 Championship: 1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New ...

on 19 August 1962, playing for Viitorul București in a 7–0 home victory against

Minerul Lupeni Clubul Sportiv Viitorul Minerul Lupeni, commonly known as Minerul Lupeni, is a Romanian football club based in Lupeni, Hunedoara County which competes in Liga IV – Hunedoara County, the fourth tier of the Romanian football league system. Estab ...

, but in the middle of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

the club dissolved and he went to play for

Dinamo București A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterin ...

, making just one appearance in the second half of the season as the club won the title. In the next two seasons, he helped the club win another two titles, appearing in 3 games in the first and in 20 in the second. During his eight seasons spent at Dinamo, Gergely also won two Cupa României and made 8 appearances with one goal scored in European competitions. After a tournament with Dinamo in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, he remained there, signing with

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charl ...

, playing 30 games in the 1970–71 Bundesliga as the club finished on the 3rd position, also appearing in two games in which he scored one goal from the

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European Association football, football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is often considered the predecess ...

. He was banned for life in January 1972 together with other players for throwing the game against Arminia Bielefeld and accepting a 15,000

Deutsche mark The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was ...

bribe in exchange. Afterwards, Gergely went to play for

Durban City Durban City was a South African association football club based in the city of Durban. Formed in 1959 by Norman Elliott, the club was dissolved in 1988. History Durban City FC played in the newly formed whites only National Football League f ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

where he could play because at that time the country was not a member of

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

, winning the 1972

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

, also working as a police officer during that time. In November 1973, the German Football Association cancelled his and the other players suspensions, it is believed that the case was hastily and superficially tried and the players were unduly pardoned because the image of the 1974 World Cup, which was to be held in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

would have been affected. Even though his suspension was lifted, Gergely retired at age 32, working for a while as head coach at

BFC Germania 1888 BFC Germania 1888 is a German football club from Berlin. Founded on 15 April 1888, it is the oldest active football club in the country. History BFC Germania 1888 was founded as ''BFC Germania'' by 17-year-old Paul Jestram, his three brothers, ...

and at club 1. FC Wilmersdorf where he coached juniors, also working at the club's casino. Vasile Gergely has a total of 145 matches and 7 goals scored in Divizia A and 35 appearances in

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

International career

Vasile Gergely played 34 matches for

and scored two goals, making his debut on 30 September 1962 under coach

Constantin Teașcă Constantin Teașcă also known as Titi Teașcă (25 September 1922 – 30 July 1996) was a Romanian association football, football play and manager. Teașcă was the manager of Romania national football team, Romania in 1962 and 1967. He managed ...

in a friendly which ended with a 4–0 victory against

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. He went on to play two games at the 1964 European Nations' Cup qualifiers, four at the 1966 World Cup qualifiers and five at the Euro 1968 qualifiers. Gergely played four games at the successful 1970 World Cup qualifiers, also being used by coach Angelo Niculescu in the 2–1 victory against

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

from the group stage of the

final tournament Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

when he was sent on the field in the 81st minute in order to replace

Ion Dumitru Ion Dumitru (born 2 January 1950, in București), commonly known as Liță Dumitru, is a Romanian former professional footballer, and manager who played as a midfielder from 1967 until 1989. He is currently a youth coach at the Kalonji Soccer ...

, this being his last appearance for the national team which did not advance to the next stage.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first. "Score" column indicates the score after each Gergely goal.''

Personal life

His brothers, Iuliu and Iosif were also footballers.

Honours

Dinamo București * Divizia A: 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65 * Cupa României: 1963–64, 1967–68 Durban City *

: 1972

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gergely, Vasile 1941 births Living people Sportspeople from Baia Mare Romanian footballers Olympic footballers of Romania Romania international footballers CS Minaur Baia Mare (football) players FC Dinamo București players Hertha BSC players Association football defenders 1970 FIFA World Cup players Liga I players Liga II players Bundesliga players Romanian sportspeople of Hungarian descent Romanian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate soccer players in South Africa Romanian expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Romanian football managers Expatriate football managers in Germany Romanian defectors