Emil Östreicher

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emil Östreicher (born December 2, 1915 in Győr , † October 20, 1992 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian football official , primarily known as a manager at the historically important teams of Honved Budapest and Real Madrid in the 1950s and early 1960s. In Germany he was briefly at FC Schalke 04 in the 1970s . He also worked for AC Torino , Español Barcelona and Valencia CF in 1962 and 1976 . In the 1980s he was still Technical Director of the Hungarian national team and the Hungarian Federation.

Live and act

Östreicher's career as a football player is mainly limited to having played as a youth for a Budapest street football team called Real . 1945 became commercial manager at ETO Győr , later at Vasas Budapest . Around 1950 he got the job as head of the football department of Honved Budapest . In the years that followed, Hungarian football achieved world renown thanks to the national team. The mainstay of this team were the Honved players, including Ferenc Puskás .

At the end of October 1956, with the personal permission of Prime Minister Imre Nagy , he and Honved left for Western Europe because of the Hungarian uprising in order to prepare for the upcoming round of 16 in the European Cup against Athletic Bilbao in Brussels in a relatively peaceful environment . In the meantime, Honved traveled through Europe to earn a living from private games organized by Östreicher. Together with some players from other clubs who had also moved to the West, the team finally traveled to Brazil , contrary to the association's orders, in January 1957 to play against CR Flamengo and Botafogo FR . After two final games in the Venezuelan capital Caracas , the team traveled back to Europe, albeit without Béla Guttmann , who had been hired as a coach at São Paulo FC . Some players now returned to Hungary nicely, others stayed in Western Europe, where they were able to continue their careers after a one-year ban.

It is said that Östreicher was initially employed by the Vienna Sports Club . In February 1958 he was signed by Real Madrid as Technical Director. He was then able to bring his friend Ferenc Puskás to the club. In that era, Real Madrid won the European Cup five times between 1956 and 1960.

In February 1962, Don Emilio , as he was now often called, accepted a well-endowed financial offer from AC Turin and became General Manager there . A decision that Austrians would regret all their life. The cooperation came to a standstill in December of that year. Then he was back in Spain, this time from around 1964/65, when the former great Star Reals, Alfredo Di Stéfano played there and László "Ladislao" Kubala was coach, until October 1969 for Español Barcelona and from around mid-1974 Valencia CF is still active.

In spring 1977 he happened to meet the president of the German Bundesliga club FC Schalke 04 while having lunch in one of his two hotels in Benidorm on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, Karl-Heinz Hütsch, who finally hired him in July of that year as a personal advisor with managerial functions . In early March 1978, however, President Hütsch fell victim to an internal rebellion and was replaced by his predecessor Günter Siebert . Since Östreicher only had a contract with Hütsch and not the club, his controversial engagement was also ended. He signed Wim Suurbier , Dutch vice world champion from 1974, Lennart Larsson from Sweden and the German international Manfred Ritschel did not prove to be sustainable reinforcements for the Gelsenkirchen team. His saying after a defeat against FC Bayern would rather lose 7-1 than 7-1 0-1 was remembered.

In 1982 he was the technical director of the Hungarian national team at the 1982 World Cup in Spain. Between 1984 and 1986 he was Technical Director at the Hungarian Football Association.

Östreicher, who only married at the age of 40 - his wife Margit, née Eperjessy, was a master of rowing for ten years and also known as an excellent cook - and for a long time Benidorm on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, where he owned two hotels, as his second home In his later years he resettled permanently in Budapest, where he died on October 20, 1992 at the age of 77.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Östreicher, Emil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian football official
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Győr
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1992
Place of death Budapest