István Nyers

István Nyers
Personal information
Full name	István 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
Position(s)	Winger, Forward
Youth career
1941–1942	III. Kerületi TVE
1942–1943	Kábelgyári SC
Senior career*
Years	Team
1943–1944	Szabadkai VAC
1944–1945	Ganz
1945	ŽAK Subotica
1945–1946	Újpest
1946	Viktoria Žižkov
1946–1948	Stade Français
1948–1954	Inter Milan
1954	Servette
1954–1956	Roma
1956–1957	Barcelona
1957	Terrassa
1958	Sabadell
1959–1960	Lecco
1960–1961	Marzotto
International career
1945–1946	Hungary
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

István Nyers (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈiʃtvaːn ˈɲɛrʃ]; 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). When Yugoslavs retook Subotica, Nyers moved to Budapest where he had a short spell with Ganz-MÁVAG SE where he played along László Kubala.^[2] In March 1945, Nyers played some friendlies for ŽAK Subotica (formerly Szabadkai VAC), before the club got disbanded by new Yugoslav authorities. Its players stayed together and went on a tour throughout Serbia as a representing team of Subotica.^[3] Nyers scored several goals on this tour.^[3] Later that year, Nyers left Yugoslavia and returned to Budapest, where he joined 1945 Újpest FC, winning two league titles.^[4] 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 Milan. 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 Catalan 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.^[5]

Honours

Club

Újpest^[4]

Nemzeti Bajnokság I: 1945, 1945–46

Internazionale^[6]

Serie A: 1952–53, 1953–54

Barcelona

Copa del Rey: 1957

Notes

^ Nyers István Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine at internazionale.hu, Retrieved 5-10-2012 (in Hungarian)
^ GANZ 1944–45 sezn at nela.hu
^ ^a ^b Istorija FK Spartak at FK Spartak Subotica official website, retrieved 21-8-2018 (in Serbian) (indicated as Njerš in Serbian)
^ ^a ^b "István Nyers". Nemzeti Labdarúgó Archívum (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 9 June 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
^ Addio Nyers at gradsubotica.co.rs, 22-3-2010, retrieved 16-10-2013 (in Serbian)
^ "Istvan Nyers". FC Internazionale - Inter Milan. Retrieved 1 February 2021.