Rudolf Wetzer

Rudolf 'Rudy' Wetzer (17 March 1901 – 13 April 1993) was a Romanian football player and manager. He was the captain and team-coach alongside Octav Luchide, under the management of Costel Rădulescu of the first Romanian side to participate in a FIFA World Cup. He was of Jewish ethnicity.[1] His brothers Ștefan and Ioan were also footballers.[2]

Rudy Wetzer
Personal information
Full name Rudolf Wetzer I
Date of birth (1901-03-17)17 March 1901
Place of birth Timișoara, Austria–Hungary
Date of death 13 April 1993(1993-04-13) (aged 92)
Place of death Haifa, Israel
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1920–1921 Chinezul Timişoara - (-)
1921–1922 Törekvés SE - (-)
1922–1924 Unirea Timișoara - (-)
1924–1925 BSK Belgrade - (-)
1925–1928 Chinezul Timişoara - (-)
1928–1929 Újpest - (-)
1929–1931 Juventus Bucureşti - (-)
1931–1932 Ripensia Timişoara - (-)
1932–1933 FC Hyères 13 (5)
1934–1935 ILSA Timișoara - (-)
1935–1936 Rovine Grivița Craiova - (-)
1936–1937 Progresul Timișoara - (-)
National team
1923–1932 Romania 17 (13)
Teams managed
1934–1935 Ripensia Timişoara
1935–1936 ILSA Timișoara
1936–1938 Progresul Timișoara
1938–1939 Tricolor Ploieşti
1940–1947 Oţelul Reşiţa
1948–1952 Dinamo Bucureşti
1952 Dinamo Oraşul Stalin
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Career

In club football Wezter played for Juventus Bucureşti (who were Romanian national champions in 1929–1930 season),[3] as such he was a colleague of squad members Vogl and Ladislau Raffinsky. In the 1920s he had played for Unirea Timişoara (appearing, whilst with them, at the 1924 Olympic Games) and Chinezul before moving on. His last matches for Romania (played while he was playing for Ripensia were in 1932; his last match came in a 2–0 defeat to Bulgaria in Belgrade.[4] Otherwise he played for BSK Belgrade, Újpest FC, Hyères FC, ILSA Timișoara and Craiovan Craiova. While playing in Hungary, he used the name Rudolf Veder, in Serbia, Rudolf Večer.

When BSK brought Wetzer along another Romanian, Dezideriu Laki, to its team in 1924, they became the first foreign professionals to play in Serbia.[5]

International career

During the 1930 FIFA World Cup Wetzer became Romania's team captain and team-coach alongside Octav Luchide, under the management of Costel Rădulescu. This was Rădulescu's decision in the weeks prior to the tournament. In May 1930 the Romanians had lost the King Alexander's Cup (a two team event) to Yugoslavia in Belgrade. At the time Emerich Vogl was team captain. Wetzer was brought back into the side two weeks' later for a friendly against Greece in Bucharest. This decision reaped considerable rewards for both Rădulescu and Wetzer because Wetzer scored 5 goals in an 8–1 victory for his team. Romania had been grouped with Uruguay and Peru in the tournament, defeating the Peruvians 3–1 before losing to the eventual winners and hosts 4–0. The second of these games was held at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo.

Wetzer was a very prolific scorer for Romania. He and Bodola were the top two goalscorers of the 1929–1931 (first) edition of the Balkan Cup (which Romania won). They scored 7 goals each for their country in that tournament alone.[6]

In total Wetzer was to play 17 times for Romania scoring 13 goals.

Coaching career

After retiring as a footballer Wetzer became a trainer. In 1958, during a purge by the ruling national party against "revisionism and bourgeois ideology, indiscipline and descriptive anarchic elements" Wetzer became subject to an order forbidding him from "leaving the collective in which he was engaged without good reason, under penalty of being expelled from the trainers' corps.[7]

Honours

Player
Chinezul Timișoara
Juventus București

Coach
Ripensia Timișoara

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 December 2010. Retrieved 14 October 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Povestile fotbalului. De ce iubim atat de mult fotbalul? Rudy Wetzer, capitanul nationalei de la CM Uruguay 1930, are cuvantul" [Football stories. Why do we love football so much? Rudy Wetzer, the national team captain at the 1930 WC in Uruguay has the word] (in Romanian). hotnews.ro. 29 May 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  3. Juventus Bucuresti
  4. Fotbal Minut Cu Minut – Romanian Soccer | Anul 1932 | Ripensia, Cao, Antrenor, RomÂnia, Bodola
  5. 50. godina BFS, page 37 (in Serbian)
  6. "Balkan Cup (for Nations) 1929/31". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.
  7. Wave Of Purges In Every Field Of Rumanian Public Life
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