István Nyers

István Nyers

Personal information
Full name	István Nyers or Stefano Nyers
Date of birth	25 May 1924
Place of birth	Freyming-Merlebach, France
Date of death	9 March 2005 (aged 80)
Place of death	Subotica, Serbia and Montenegro
Playing position	Winger, Forward
Youth career
1938–1941	III. Kerületi TUE
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1941–1944	Szabadkai Vasutas AC
1944	Ganz-MÁVAG SE	9	(3)
1945	ŽAK Subotica	3	(0)
1945–1946	Újpesti TE	22	(20)
1946	Viktoria Žižkov	3	(1)
1946–1948	Stade Français FC	62	(34)
1948–1954	Internazionale	182	(133)
1954	Servette FC	0	(0)
1954–1956	AS Roma	54	(20)
1956–1957	FC Barcelona	0	(0)
1957	Terrassa FC	0	(0)
1958	CD Sabadell	0	(0)
1958–1960	Lecco	36	(11)
1960–1961	Marzotto Valdagno	11	(0)
National team
1945–1946	Hungary	2	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

István Nyers (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈiʃtvaːn ˈɲerʃ]; 25 May 1924 – 9 March 2005), also known as "Stefano Nyers", was a Hungarian footballer who played as a forward or as a winger. Although he played in only two international matches for Hungary, he is considered one of the greatest football legends of his country, reaching the peak of his career in the 1940s and 1950s.

Career

Nyers was born in Freyming-Merlebach, Moselle, France into an immigrant Hungarian mining family; his younger brother was Ferenc Nyers. When he was 14 he moved with his family to Budapest where he started playing with III. Kerületi TUE. He will have his first official debut aged 17 and playing with Szabadkai VAC^[1] which was a Yugoslav club from Subotica that played in the Hungarian league system after the Hungarian annexation of Bačka during World War II (1941–1944). In March 1945 he played some games with Szabadkai VAC, by then with the restored name of ŽAK Subotica.^[2] In April they make a tour throughout Serbia representing Subotica. Upon their return to Subotica, a decition was made by new Yugoslav authorities to disband ŽAK and merge them with other local clubs to form FK Spartak Subotica. Njerš, as he was known in Serbian, had played and scored regularly in their games on the tour, was not in the list of ŽAK players that became part of Spartak,^[3] and he returned to Hungary. Earlier, during second half of 1944, he had played along László Kubala with Ganz-MÁVAG SE.^[4]

In 1945 he made a major move by joining Újpest FC and seeing them win the Hungarian League in 1945 and 1946.^[5] In 1946 he transferred briefly to the Czechoslovakian team FK Viktoria Žižkov and then to the French club Stade Français.

After two years in Paris he was recruited by the Italian side Inter. Here he developed to one of the strongest forwards in the history of Serie A. With 26 goals in his first season he became the top scorer of the league. In 182 games for Inter he scored a total of 133 goals. Twice, in 1953 and 1954, he became Italian champion with Inter.

After winning the championship for the second time Nyers left Milan and changed via Servette FC of Geneva to AS Roma, where he remained for two years. A season with the Catalonian sides CF Barcelona, Terrassa FC and CD Sabadell followed before he played out the remainder of his career with minor league Italian clubs.

Nyers retired from the professional game in 1961. During his retirement he lived for several years in Milan before settling in Subotica, Serbia until his death in 2005 at the age of 80.^[6]

Notes

1. Nyers István at internazionale.hu, Retrieved 5-10-2012 (Hungarian)
2. Istorija FK Spartak at FK Spartak Subotica official website, retrieved 24-5-2016 (Serbian) (indicated as Njerš in Serbian)
3. Fuddbal: najpopularniji sport at Subotica sports association official website, retrieved 24-5-2016 (Serbian)
4. GANZ 1944-45 sezn at nela.hu
5. István Nyers Hungarian championship stats at nela.hu
6. Addio Nyers at gradsubotica.co.rs, 22-3-2010, retrieved 16-10-2013 (Serbian)

External links

• István Nyers at magyarfutball.hu
• (Hungarian) A biography page