Ernest Hillard

Ernest Hillard was an English clerk, soldier, and footballer. After settling in Romania in 1906, he played football for the Romanian-American Society, the Tricolor București, and was a member of the first-ever version of the Romania national team in 1919, which participated in the football tournament of the Inter-Allied Games in Paris.

Biography Born in England, Hillard settled in Romania in or before 1906, as a clerk at the Concordia-Vega Refinery in Ploiești. He played football for the Romanian-American Society until the outbreak of World War I in 1914, in which he fought on the front lines with the Romanian uniform. Hillard was listed as a member of the football team, whose squad was formed by soldiers who had participated in the War and who was drawn almost exclusively from Bucharest clubs, such as Coltea, Venus, and Tricolor. These matches played in the tournament are not included in the official FIFA register, and Romania only made its official debut three years later.

Honours Tricolor București Divizia A: Champions (1): 1920–21