Petre Steinbach

Petre Steinbach (1 January 1906 – 1996) was a Romanian football midfielder and manager.

Club career Steinbach was born on 1 January 1906 in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary, being of Banat Swabian ethnicity, and began playing football in 1925 at CAM Timișoara. In 1928 he went for one year at Colțea Brașov, afterwards moving to Unirea Tricolor București. He made his last Divizia A appearance on 10 April 1938 in a 6–1 loss to Chinezul Timișoara, totaling 90 games with five goals in the competition. In the same tournament he also played in the rematch, a 5–2 victory, and appeared in two 4–2 away wins over Yugoslavia and Greece respectively, helping Romania win the competition. During his 18th and last cap for the national team, he was captain in a 7–1 friendly loss to Sweden. He began coaching in 1934 while still playing for Unirea Tricolor București, reaching the 1936 Cupa României final, which they lost 5–1 to Ripensia Timișoara.

After World War II, Steinbach, because of his German origins, was sent for a while to forced labor in the USSR. In the same season the club won the Cupa României, but Steinbach left before the final, Gusztáv Juhász leading the team in the 3–2 win over CFR Timișoara. In 1948 he coached Romania for a short period of time, leaving after a 9–0 away loss to Hungary in the 1948 Balkan Cup. Afterwards he went to coach Rapid București with whom he finished runner-up in the 1948–49 and 1950 seasons. After The Railwaymen were relegated in 1951, he helped them gain promotion back to the first league after one year.

Steinbach worked for a few years at Dinamo București's youth center where he taught players such as Ion and Lică Nunweiller, Ion Pârcălab, Iosif Varga and Florin Halagian. Following the tournament in Vienna, Steinbach was arrested for "unknown reasons" when he arrived back in Romania.

Writing Steinbach wrote his first book in 1937 titled Fotbalul nostru (Our football) which received a positive review from Camil Petrescu. He wrote another volume titled Fotbalul se joacă râzând (Football is played with laughter), released in 1972. He also wrote for a few years an analysis column in the Sportul popular newspaper.

Death Steinbach died in 1996 at age 90 in Germany, a country where he had settled in 1975.

Quotes "In most cases, a football player is formed until the age of 20. When he enters the first team, all he has to do is perfect his game and crystallize his technique." "The educator, the teacher must have a double goal in mind: the "gentleman-athlete", who can respond perfectly to the physical effort but who also lives the moral aspect of the sport. An athlete must lead a complete life, to be lived both with his body and his soul. And this sporting life must be continuous." "A player must develop, before entering the first team, in all positions. It is a big mistake to raise, from a young age, specialized players for certain positions." "A wretched financial spirit prevails among our players, which obscures this understanding. They only play to earn money, which they can easily squander in a non-sporting life. Professionalism was created to give players as much time as possible to improve. Our footballers imported the goal but did not admit the obstacles."

Honours Player Unirea Tricolor București Divizia A runner-up: 1933–34 Divizia B: 1938–39 Cupa României runner-up: 1935–36 Romania Balkan Cup: 1929–31, 1933 Central European International Cup: 1931–34

Manager Unirea Tricolor București Cupa României runner-up: 1935–36 ITA Arad Divizia A: 1947–48 Cupa României: 1947–48 Rapid București Divizia A runner-up: 1948–49, 1950 Divizia B: 1952 Romania U18 Under-18 European Championship runner-up: 1960