Erbstein Ernő. Az elfeledett futballhős

by Dominic Bliss

Ernő Egri Erbstein was one of the greatest coaches there has ever been, a pioneering tactician and supreme man-manager who created Il Grande Torino, the team that dominated Italian football in the years immediately after the Second World War.

His was an extraordinary life that was characterised by courage and resourcefulness in the face of adversity.

Erbstein was part of the great Jewish coaching tradition developed in the coffee houses of Budapest and, playing in Hungary, Italy and the USA, he moved to Bari to embark on a coaching career that soon became noted for its innovativeness.

That he and his family survived the Holocaust was a matter of astonishing good fortune, but just four years after the end of the war, Erbstein was killed with his team in the Superga air crash.

Dominic Bliss, through a combination of interviews, painstaking archival research and careful detective work, pieces together the lost history of one of football's most influential early heroes.

What people have said about Erbstein: football's forgotten pioneer

"Erbstein's story, largely untold before today, is one of those tales that makes us realise just how – for better and worse – European history is mirrored in football." – Gabriele Marcotti

“A powerful and moving account of one of football's forgotten heroes." - Anthony Clavane

Genres: Football, Soccer, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published December 11, 2014

Reviews

[Shatterlings · Rating 4 out of 5]

“May you live in interesting times” isn’t that how the curse goes. Erbstein did, much of his career was affected by politics and decisions beyond his control but he came through that. Some of the war parts of this book are harrowing as they should be, and the ending is of course tragic but told here so movingly. This is an informative and well written account of his life.

[Roberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hungarian version was a present by Gábor Sisák, but I had to wait for the Italian translation to read it. It's a long and detailed story of a Jew football trainer, survived during World War II but died on Superga Hill with "Grande Torino". The style of the author makes all Egri Erbstein's life like a film: he failed and won, he escaped from the most dangerous situations and managed to save his family. It is a story of wit and luck – that's why it is engaging and unique. I think some passages could have been deepened a bit more, while in other parts this book is extremely long (and sometimes repetitive) without a real reason. But overall it gives the right showcase for a sports hero, one of this examples that young people should get to know.

[bernard brannigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful piece on football , human life , war and how it was dealt with

Loved this from start to finish. Learning of egri tactical nous . his adaptability his perseverance, . This is a book about football , about surviving, ingenuity. Its about war , its about religious discrimination and how one man was able overcome them. He was ahead of his time by decade's . I truly would have lived to see his teams play . brilliant book highly recommend it to anyone

[Tom Bain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book feels a little fuzzy and thin at the beginning, then comes into focus as its subject and the history he lived through become more relevant and important, and the book strengthens accordingly. I did feel that Erbstein himself remains somewhat at a distance though, perhaps because of his story's tragic ending, which also deprived us of many of his contemporaries who'd have doubtless helped inform a more traditional biography. My copy was weirdly riddled with typographical errors.

[Alberto Fogola · Rating 4 out of 5]

libro da leggere, non solo per chi è un cuore granata. Ti fa conoscere un grande personaggio anche al di là dell'essere stato l'artefice del Grande Torino. In alcuni punti (soprattutto all'inizio) un po' troppo nozionistico a mio avviso.
Bello!

[Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched, but despite the authors best attempts this book is too dry.

[Sandor · Rating 2 out of 5]

storia e personaggio meravigliosi. Il libro è molto ben documentato, ma purtroppo è scritto malissimo e semplicemente troppo lungo senza una seria revisione editoriale.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The football world, the broader sporting world and the coaching and management world, owe a great debt to Dominic Bliss for telling the story of Erno Egri Erbstein. What a shame if we had been denied the drama, the glory and the lessons of one of the most important figures in the history of sport and left the telling to Erbstein’s meagre Wikipedia page. Thank you Mr. Bliss.

[P D · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are times in life that hearing or reading about the experiences of others leaves you feeling truly humble.

This book, for me, was such a moment.

A fantastic piece of writing and thanks to Dominic Bliss for bringing this story to the English reading public.

[John Costello · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, a very well researched and written book about an incredibly interesting football figure.