Illés Spitz

Illés Spitz (Serbo-Croatian: Ileš Špic / Илеш Шпиц); 2 February 1902 – 1 October 1961) was a Hungarian Jewish international football player and manager, best known for his work in Yugoslav football in the 1940s and 1950s. Spitz is among the few survivors of the Holocaust from Macedonia, after being saved by the Bulgarian authorities.

Playing career Illés was part of the Újpest FC's first "golden era" helping the club win the Coupe des Nations 1930 and three championships. In 1935 he moved to Switzerland where he played one season in FC St. Gallen and another in FC Zürich. During his playing career he played over 1,000 matches and scored over 600 goals.

Spitz also played a total of six matches for the Hungary national football team, having scored three goals.

In 1939 he moved to Gragjanski Skopje, the top Macedonian club at the time, which played in the regional Serbian League, which served as a qualifier for the final stage of the Yugoslav national championship.

At the end of the war, the region returned to Yugoslavia. However, the country was no longer a monarchy, and the new communist authorities disbanded most existing clubs to create new ones. Spitz stayed in Skopje until 1946, but then the newly formed FK Partizan in Belgrade - officially established as the club sponsored by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) - was recruiting the best players from all over the country, and Spitz was brought in from Skopje, along with the star player Kiril Simonovski.

Spitz was successful in his job as the first manager of Partizan in the 1940s, winning two Yugoslav First League titles and three Yugoslav Cups. He later manager a smaller Belgrade side, FK Radnički Beograd and took them to the Yugoslav cup final in 1957. By 1960 Spitz led his teams in the Yugoslav cup final a total of seven times, more than any other manager.

In 1960, he returned to Skopje as technical director of the city's new top-flight team, FK Vardar, and it was in the dressing room, after a league match, that he suddenly died from a heart attack on 1 October 1961.

Honours

Player Újpest Hungarian League: 1929–30, 1930–31 Coupe des Nations 1930 Mitropa Cup: 1929

Manager Partizan Yugoslav First League: 1946–47, 1948–49 Yugoslav Cup: 1947, 1952, 1954 Vardar Yugoslav Cup: 1960–61