Sándor Nemes (25 September 1899 – 27 October 1977), also known as Alexander Neufeld and Aleksandar Nemeš, was a Hungarian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager. He had a playing career in Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, United States and Yugoslavia, and he represented the national teams of

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Playing career

Born in Budapest to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family, Sándor Nemes begin playing for a local club named ILK. When the club was disbanded in 1916 he joined

Ferencvárosi TC Ferencvárosi Torna Club, commonly known as Ferencváros (), Fradi, FTC is a Hungary, Hungarian professional Association football, football club based in Ferencváros, Budapest, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the top flight of Hunga ...

where after playing initially in the youth team in same year due to his skills he got promoted to the senior squad. At first he played as striker but shortly after he changed his playing position to right-winger. He soon became an established player within the team, forming the attacking line along with Mihály Pataki and Isidor Gansl. In both 1918 and 1919 they finished second in the Hungarian Championship behind the then dominating

MTK Budapest Magyar Testgyakorlók Köre (Hungarian for "Hungarian Circle of Physical Practitioners") is a multi-sports club from Budapest, founded in 1888. It has sections for football, handball, basketball, volleyball, futsal, ice hockey, water polo, cycl ...

. With Ferencváros he played a total of 57 league matches having scored 18 goals On 12 May 1918 he made his debut for the Hungarian national team playing in attack along Alfred Schaffer and

Imre Schlosser Imre Schlosser (also known as Imre Lakatos; 11 October 1889 – 18 July 1959) was a Hungarian footballer of Danube Swabian ancestry who played as a forward. He still holds the record as the highest goalscorer in the history of the Hungarian Na ...

in the 2–1 win over Switzerland in Budapest. A few weeks later, on 2 June, in Vienna, he played again this time winning Austria by 2–0. On 5 October 1919, he played his third match for the Hungarian national team, again in Vienna against Austria, however this time they were defeated by 0–2. In that period because of the political situation, many Hungarian players were emigrating abroad, and Nemes was no exception and he signed with second league Austrian club SC Hakoah Vienna. As a way to overcame a bureaucratic problem over the signing, he accepted a job in a bank in Vienna. He played his first match with Hakoah in November 1919 and became soon one of the most important players in their aspiration to get promotion to the first league. By then, the

Hungarian Football Federation The Hungarian Football Federation (HFF) (, ) is the governing body of football and futsal in Hungary. It organizes the Hungarian league and the Hungary national team. The MLSZ is responsible for the Hungarian football league system, the men's a ...

was having a violent confrontation with Austrian clubs over the players that begin playing for Austrian clubs without being officially released from their origin clubs in Hungary. Until the end of 1919 these players, among them Ferenc Plattkó, Jenö brothers, Kálmán Konrád, and Sándor Nemes included, were not allowed to play under the insistency of the Hungarian Federation to sanction them. This situation lasted until March 1920 when the players could finally return to play. In his first season with Hakoah, Nemes reached the semi-finals of the

Austrian Cup The Austrian 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 a record 27th time. Wo ...

. Middle of that year 1920, Nemes rejoined his former club Ferencváros as they played a tournée in Switzerland. However instead of returning to Hungary he decided to stay in Switzerland and signed with

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

where his former national team colleague Alfred Schaffer played. Nemes played only one month with the team in two test games. He then received an invitation from the German businessman Otto Eidinger to participate in a newly formed ''Hungarian professional team'' that had programmed during the next year exhibition matches all over Europe. Sándor Nemes accepted the invitation, along with a number of other notable players like Plattkó, Pataki, József Ging,

Gyula Feldmann Gyula Feldmann (16 November 1880 – 31 October 1955) was a Hungarian association football, football player and coach. Playing career During his playing career Feldmann played with Nemzeti SC and MTK Hungária FC, MTK Budapest in the Nemzeti B ...

and

József Viola József Viola (10 June 1896 – 18 August 1949) also known as Giuseppe Viola was a Hungarian football player and coach, who played as a midfielder. He is most prominent for his time in Italy and his association with clubs such as Juventus. He al ...

. However, after only a few weeks the tournée was abandoned with players complaining about not being paid. Most of the players returned to Austria and Hungary where they were sanctioned by the respective federations with Nemes receiving a suspension to last until April 1921. He didn't respect the suspension, and as most other players did, he moved to

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

and signed with Maccabi Brno. However soon afterwards an agreement was reached about an amnesty for players that would accept to return, and thus Nemes returned to Hakoah in summer 1921 and became part of Hakoah team that this time played in the

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

. In his first complete season in 1921–22 Hakoah finished second in the league, only 2 points behind the leader. In the next season Hakoah finished in mid table, but Nemes impressed by scoring 16 goals and finishing in third place as league top scorer. In 1924, professionalization begin in Austrian football and in that same year Hakoah won the Austrian championship. They also won in the same year their first European title by beating

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

by 5–0 with Nemes scoring three goals in that final match. By then, Nemes had already played four times with the city selection of Vienna, and Austria national team manager

Hugo Meisl Hugo Meisl (16 November 1881 – 17 February 1937), brother of the journalist Willy Meisl, was the multi-lingual football coach of the famous Austrian ' Wunderteam' of the early 1930s, as well as a referee. Background Meisl was born to a Jewi ...

convoked him for the match on 5 July 1925, in Stockholm against Sweden, where he made his debut for the

Austria national football team The Austria national football team () represents Austria in men's international Association football, football competitions, and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association. The Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) was founded on 18 Mar ...

in the 4–2 win. He will play his second match for Austria on 8 November, that same year, in a 0–2 loss against Switzerland in Bern. He played both matches under the name of Alexander Neufeld. In spring 1926 Hakoah made a successful tournée in the United States with a number of players receiving contract offers on behalf of American soccer clubs. Nemes returned to Austria and finished that season, however he had informed that at the end of the season he will leave Hakoah and move to the United States by accepting the offer of Brooklyn Wanderers to play in the American Soccer League. Along with Nemes, three other Hakoah players also moved to Brooklyn, namely Hoffer, Leopold Drucker and Heinrich Schoenfeld. After one season in America, Nemes returned to Hakoah, however he couldn't stop the fall of the club that lost its best players, and they ended up relegated that season. Nemes returned to the States in 1929 and played with Hakoah All-Stars until 1930. In fall of 1930 he played with Fall River F.C. helping them to win the 1930 American Soccer League.

Coaching career

Seems that he returned to Austria in 1931 and worked one season as coach with a Second league Jewish club named Hasmonea, however the club ended up relegated due to the reduction in number of clubs for the next season and Nemes moved to Yugoslavia. After coming to BSK in 1933, he won the Championship in

1933 Events January * January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independen ...

and

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...

before having a year coaching experience with Hapoel Hatzair in Palestina, with Austrian Josef Uridil replacing him for that year at BSK. In 1936 however he returned to Belgrade. In June 1938 he graduated in a six-months coaching course organised by the Yugoslav Football Association. He took charge of Bata Borovo coming from SK Jugoslavia, in July 1938, replacing Bilek. Afterwards, he had a brief spell coaching Turkish Fenerbahçe before returning to Borovo.

Name

His real name is Sándor Nemes, although for unknown reasons he begin to be known by the mid-1920s as Alexander Neufeld. Also, a number of Serbian sources name him in a third variant, as Aleksandar Nemeš. A match report from IFFHS refers to him as Alex Nemesch. It also seems that some sources confused him with another Hungarian born footballer, Ferry Neufeld, who was initially named Ferenc Nemes, thus appearing Alexander Nemes as having played 2 matches and scoring one goal for the Palestine national team, when in fact it was Ferry Neufeld who played for Palestine in those matches. He is also sometimes confused with another Hungarian coach,

Károly Nemes Károly Nemes, also known as Dragutin Nemeš, was a Hungarian football goalkeeper and coach. He is best known for his work on champion teams of SK Rapid Wien and SK Jugoslavija. He coached throughout Central and South-Eastern Europe. Career Pl ...

, also known as ''Karlo'' or ''Dragutin Nemeš''. A coach known as ''G. Nemetz'' has coached Fenerbahçe between 1939 and 1940 although there is still no confirmation if it was Sandor Nemes.G.Nemetz @ Mackolik.com
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Honours

Player

; Hakoah Vienna * Austrian Championship: 1924–25 ; Fall River * American Soccer League:

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be on J ...

; BSK * Yugoslav Championship:

Coach

; BSK * Yugoslav Championship:

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House. * January 28 – Death and state funer ...

, 1938–39

References

External links