Sándor Nemes was born in Budapest on Sep 15, 1899 ([Skr03] gives 1903, which may be a mistake for 1913, see below on Peri/Ferenc Neufeld), and moved to Austria at the end of 1919 (shortly after his third and last match for Hungary), signing for Hakoah in Vienna, a Jewish club restricted to Jewish players. Following a 2-year odyssee in which he played for (among others) FC Basel (Switzerland) and Makkabi Brno (Czechoslovakia) he returned to Hakoah, having meanwhile taken the name Alexander Neufeld. Under that name he played two matches for Austria in 1925.
Hakoah toured the United States of America in 1926, a year after having won the first ever professional league championship in Austria (and on the European continent) in 1924/25. Many Hakoah players remained in the USA, among them Neufeld who played for Brooklyn Wanderers in 1926 and for Hakoah All-Stars in New York from 1929 to 1930 (in between, he had returned to Hakoah and played there at the end of the 1927/28 season, in which the club, depleted by the exodus of so many players to the USA, was relegated, and in 1928/29, in which Hakoah secured promotion from the second division by winning all 24 matches). He later returned to Vienna, training Hasmonea, another Jewish club, relegated from the second level at the end of the 1931/32 season following the reduction of the second level from 25 clubs (playing in two groups) to 12 (playing in one group), before becoming the trainer of Beogradski SK, champions of Yugoslavia in 1933.
His later thereabouts are not entirely clear, but he coached Hapoel Tel-Aviv in Israel during the 1950s. He died on Oct 27, 1977 (according to [Egg 94]).
According to [Skr 03] he is the same player as Peri/Perry Neufeld
who played 2 matches for Palestine (scoring 1 goal), both in the
qualifying tournament of the 1938 World Cup (22- 1-1938 in Tel-Aviv,
1-3 vs Greece, Neufeld scoring the only goal for the home side,
and 20- 2-1938 in Athens, 0-1 vs Greece).
However, this must be a case of mistaken identity: Ferenc
Neufeld was born on July 1, 1913 (presumably as Ferenc Nemes) in
Hungary and died January 17, 1982 in Israel (according to the
Israeli population registry) and this is almost certainly the
same person as the Peri Neufeld who played those 2 matches for
Palestine after immigrating to Israel in 1935 (note that Feri is
the short form for Ferenc in Hungarian and F and P are transcribed
by the same letter (pe) in Hebrew (although pronounced differently),
which explains the mention of
Peri Neufeld in Israeli sources).
As [Skr 03] states that Peri/Perry Neufeld only converted to the
Jewish religion after arriving in Palestine (citing the Israeli FA
for this information), he cannot be identical to Alexander Neufeld
who played for Hakoah in the 1920s and therefore must have been a
Jew already then.
Hungary
Caps Date Venue Opponent Score Competition
1 12- 5-1918 Budapest Switzerland 2-1
2 2- 6-1918 Wien Austria 2-0
3 5-10-1919 Wien Austria 0-2
Austria
Caps Date Venue Opponent Score Competition
1 5- 7-1925 Stockholm Sweden 4-2
2 8-11-1925 Bern Switzerland 0-2
Total Record
Matches Won Draw Lost For Against Points Percentage
5 3 0 2 8- 7 6 60.00 (overall)
3 2 0 1 4- 3 4 66.67 (Hungary)
2 1 0 1 4- 4 2 50.00 (Austria)
Types of Matches
Friendlies 5 (3 Hungary, 2 Austria)
Total 5 (3 Hungary, 2 Austria)
Sources: [Skr 03], [Egg 94], [MaI -], wikipedia, Jews in Sports
Prepared and maintained by Yaniv Bleicher and Karel Stokkermans for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Authors: Yaniv Bleicher
(yanivbl@hotmail.com)
and Karel Stokkermans
(karel@rsssf.com)
Last updated: 3 Jan 2008
(C) Copyright Yaniv Bleicher, Karel Stokkermans and RSSSF
2008
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper
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