Steve Herczeg

Stephen Herczeg (24 July 1944 – 19 September 2016) was a footballer who played as a winger and represented the Australia national soccer team in 1965. Born in Hungary, he went to Australia as a child refugee and grew up in Adelaide, where he played for a number of local clubs, including Adelaide Juventus, who paid an Australian record transfer fee for him. He was the first player from South Australia to represent the national team.

Early life Born in Kecskemét, Hungary, on 24 July 1944, Herczeg was one of four children. His family fled the Soviet-occupied country in 1949, when he was five years old, and were amongst 20,000 displaced Hungarians who eventually went to Australia as refugees. After a spell at a migrant hostel in Woodside, South Australia, the family settled in Croydon Park, a suburb of Adelaide. Inspired by the success of his homeland's "Golden Team" during the 1950s, Herczeg preferred to play "real football" rather than take up the Australian rules version.

Club career After playing for Orange-Sturt at junior level, Herczeg made his debut in senior soccer for Adelaide Budapest in 1960, aged 16. He spent a single season with Adelaide Croatia in 1963 before joining Adelaide Juventus for a then Australian record transfer fee of £1,500. He later played for Adelaide Polonia and Port Adelaide. He made his international debut in the second match against North Korea, a 3–1 defeat, becoming the first player from South Australia to represent the national team. Australia subsequently toured South East Asia and Herczeg made his second and final international appearance as a substitute in a friendly match against Taiwan. The match, played in Hong Kong, was a "spiteful and bruising encounter" that ended with Australia leaving the field under police escort while being pelted with bottles. His condition was uncomplicated, but after his catheter tube was wrongly connected to an oxygen supply he died later that day in what the State Coroner described as "awful and macabre circumstances... his body filled much like a balloon". The death was ruled as "entirely preventable", with the coroner highly critical of the standard of medical care but unable to establish who was responsible for interfering with the equipment.