Stibinger - 97

Today, one of the most elegant footballers of the Romanian football during the 40s, Iosif Stibinger was born 97 years ago. Born in Reșița, he played firstly in Hungary and Crișana (CA Oradea), before making his name at ITA (today UTA Arad).

After his debut at Elektromos at only 18 years, he transferred at CA Oradea, in 1942, that time occupied by Hungary and played for two years, winning the championship in 1944. He came back in 1945 at Elektromos for one year before establishing himself at Arad.

His career peak was ITA Arad, where he played more than 50 official matches and score more than 20 goals. He was part of the golden team that won two consecutive domestic championships and domestic cup, making the double in 1948.

While playing for ITA Arad, on 7 March 1948, he and teammate Adalbert Kovács scored each a hat-trick in a 6–1 away victory against CSCA București, it was the first time that two players from the same team scored a hat-trick in a Divizia A match.

As one of the local scholars (Dionisie Piros) said, he was like a movie star, seeing in him an Austrian style or model of conduit. Fair and agile on the pitch, he was very attractive for the women of the period, but also very hard working.

Unfortunately he died very early, at only 25 years, on June 17, 1949, because of jaundice / icterus, mostly because he made a lot of effort continuing to play football and did not took a diet for the illness.