Abraham Klein (referee)

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Abraham Klein ( Hebrew אברהם קליין; Born March 29, 1934 in Timișoara , Romania) is a former Israeli football referee . Between the late 1960s and early 1980s led Klein, who in addition to Hebrew and Hungarian and Romanian and English speaking, major games in several World Championships and Olympic tournaments.

Live and act

Abraham Klein, who is only 155 cm tall and whose father played in the reserve of the top Hungarian team MTK Budapest , came to Israel after the Second World War via the Netherlands, where he and 500 other Jewish children had been taken to relax. A much-told story is that Abraham Klein was supposed to get his first long trousers from a tailor, but he had to go to a game as a referee and took Abraham with him. During the game the tailor, Jonas by name, injured himself and instructed young Abraham to take over the pipe from him. In his later years, Abraham Klein complained that he never got his pants, but a long international referee career began.

Olympic and World Championships in Mexico in 1968 and 1970

The first major tournament in which Abraham Klein took part was the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico. In addition to a group game, he led the bronze medal game in front of 105,000 spectators in the Aztec Stadium , in which outsiders Japan defeated hosts Mexico 2-0.

In 1969 he directed a game between Hapoel Nahariya and FC Bayern Hof - it was only forty years later that a German documentator pointed out the historical importance of the game: It was the first soccer game between teams from Israel and Germany.

At the 1970 World Cup , also taking place in Mexico , he was linesman and headed one of the best games of the tournament in Brazil's 1-0 victory in the group game against reigning world champions England, for which he received £ 10. According to his own statements, he let the game run a few minutes past regular time because the players had missed the final whistle and he enjoyed the game so much.

In 1972 he was one of the busiest referees at the Taça Independência in Brazil, a tournament in which 20 national and continental teams took part. He also whistled Brazil's 1-0 victory over Portugal in the final in front of more than 100,000 spectators in the Maracanã Stadium .

After he had not been included in the 1972 Olympic football tournament or the 1974 World Cup , his next appearance at a major international tournament was not until the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada . In addition to a group game, he headed the bronze medal game, as he had done eight years earlier, in which the USSR won 2-0 against the Brazilian Olympic team.

1978 World Cup in Argentina

At the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, he headed the game Argentina against Italy at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires , the hosts' only defeat in the tournament. In the 1-0 win of the Italians in the preliminary round group game, the Argentines accused him of denying them a penalty in the first half. It was noticed that he showed only one yellow card in that game . He also directed the inter-group game between Germany and Austria , which Austria surprisingly won 3-2. The Austrians have since called this game the “Miracle of Cordoba”, while in Germany, which was unable to qualify for the last four, it became part of football folklore as the “Disgrace of Cordoba”.

It is reported that Klein was the favorite for the post of main referee for the final between Argentina and the Netherlands, but that he was rejected by Argentina due to possible Dutch-Israeli or Dutch-Jewish connections. While the final was entrusted to the Italian Sergio Gonella , Abraham Klein had the third honor of directing a match for third place in a major international competition. Brazil won against Italy 2-1.

Later career

In June of the following year, he chaired a game between a FIFA world team and Argentina, which was played at the Bonaren Estadio Monumental on the anniversary of the World Cup final. The Argentines with the young Diego Maradona were defeated by the world eleven, who competed with Zico and Michel Platini as well as Bruno Pezzey from Austria and the “banana flanker” Manfred Kaltz from Germany, with 1: 2.

In February 1981 he headed the 1980 World Cup in Tokyo between Nottingham Forest FC from England and Nacional from Montevideo, from which the South Americans emerged as the best club team in the world for the third time with a 1-0 win.

1982 World Cup in Spain

At the 1982 World Cup in Spain, he led the dramatic match between Italy and Brazil, in which the southern Europeans beat Zico , Sócrates , Roberto Falcão and Co., perhaps the most enthusiastic Brazilian team, thanks to three goals from tournament top scorer Paolo Rossi 3-2 of all time, prevailed and secured a place in the last four. In the final of the tournament, in which Germany lost 3-1 to Italy, Brazil was only represented by the main referee Arnaldo Cézar Coelho , assisted by Abraham Klein as line judge.

In addition to his refereeing in Israel, where he was far less undisputed than internationally, he was also active in the heyday of the North American Soccer League between 1977 and 1981.

After a total of 22 international matches, he said goodbye to big football in 1986 in a game between Maccabi Haifa FC and 1. FC Köln . The hosts won 2-1. But he kept his interest in youth football and directed, as he had done since 1980, until 2000 games of the Dallas Cup .

Private

His son Amit Klein can also look back on a successful career as a referee, albeit on a smaller scale, and led games in the UEFA Champions League and World Cup qualifiers. He was most recently the Israeli referee chairman. Abraham Klein himself, a professional sports teacher in the school service, most recently in a higher administrative position, lives in an apartment on the beach in Haifa , the city where he spent most of his adult life.

literature

In 1995 the book The Referee's Referee: Becoming the Best was published, in which Abraham Klein and Ruby Shalev conveyed their ideas on how to become a successful referee through the author Paul Harris.

In 2010 Abraham Klein published his autobiography אמן המשרוקית , (about the art of the pipe ) in Israel .

Career highlights

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uzi Yitzhaki: אמן המשרוקית "מאת אברהם קליין" ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.haaretz.co.il archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Haaretz , October 20, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Little Abraham
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Klein, Avraham; אברהם קליין
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli football referee
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Timișoara , Romania