# Petre Steinbach

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

## Club career

Petre Steinbach was born on 1 January 1906 in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary, being of Banat Swabian ethnicity, starting to play football in 1925 at CAM Timișoara. In 1928 he went for one year at Colțea Brașov, afterwards moving to Unirea Tricolor București where after playing in the regional league in the first three years, he made his Divizia A debut on 4 September 1932 in a 4–1 home win over AMEF Arad. During his ten seasons spell at Unirea, the highlights were a second place in the 1933–34 season and reaching the 1936 Cupa României final as a player-coach, playing all the minutes in the 5–1 loss in front of Ripensia Timișoara. He made his last Divizia A appearance on 10 April 1938 in a 6–1 loss in front of Chinezul Timișoara, having a total of 90 games with five goals in the competition, also the team relegated at the end of that season but he stayed with the club for one more year in the second league, helping it earn promotion back to the first league. Steinbach finished his playing career in 1940 at Olympia București.

## International career

Steinbach was selected by coach Constantin Rădulescu to be part of Romania's squad at the first World Cup, the 1930 edition in which however he did not play. His debut came on 12 October 1930, Rădulescu using him in a 5–3 away loss against Bulgaria at the 1929–31 Balkan Cup, a tournament in which he also played in the rematch, which ended with a 5–2 victory, also appearing in a 4–2 away win over Yugoslavia and in a 4–2 away victory with Greece, helping Romania win the competition. He played all the minutes in Romania's first meeting with France, a home friendly which ended with a 6–3 victory. Steinbach played three games at the 1932 Balkan Cup in which he captained the team for the first time in a 3–0 away win over Greece. He also played three games at the 1931–1934 Central European Cup for Amateurs and two at the 1933 Balkan Cup, including a 7–0 victory with Bulgaria, both tournaments being won by Romania. During his 18th and last cap for the national team he was captain in a friendly which ended with a 7–1 loss in front of Sweden.

## Managerial career

In 1933 and 1938 he went for one month each time to England in order to study football training sessions, including those of Arsenal. He started coaching in 1934 while also being an active player at Unirea Tricolor București, during his three-seasons spell the biggest performance being the reaching of the 1936 Cupa României final which was lost with 5–1 loss in front of Ripensia Timișoara. Until 1938, he was a coach at Unirea Tricolor, and at the same time, he also coached Mociorniţa, Colţea and SET, all of which were in the Bucharest regional leagues.
After World War II, Steinbach, because of his German origins was sent for a while to forced labor in the USSR, Joseph Stalin considering that German people doing forced labor was a way for the Germans to pay "war reparations". Sent to work at a lead mine in the Donbas region, Steinbach was working in inhumane conditions. However, according to the sports journalist Lucian Oprea, one of the bosses in the region found out that among the deportees there is a former footballer, who also played in the Romanian national team, and thus Petre Steinbach was taken out of the camp and put to train a local team. He managed to promote the team to a higher echelon and was eventually released, returning to Romania.
In 1947 he became coach at ITA Arad, helping the team win the second title in the club's history, using only 14 players in the process. Also in the same season the team 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 in front of Hungary at the 1948 Balkan Cup. Afterwards he went to coach Rapid București which whom he finished runner-up in the league in the 1948–49 and 1950 seasons. After The Railwaymen relegated in 1951, he helped them promote back to the first league after one year.
Steinbach worked for a few years at Dinamo București's youth center where he taught and formed players like Ion and Lică Nunweiller, Ion Pârcălab, Iosif Varga or Florin Halagian. His biggest junior level performance was reaching the 1960 European Under-18 Championship final with Romania's under-18 team which was lost with 2–1 in front of Hungary. After the tournament from Vienna he was arrested for "unknown reasons" when he arrived back in Romania.
In the following years he worked at Farul Constanța in the first league, had a spell in West Germany at Weiden where he was recommended by Helmut Schön. Then he returned in the country in 1968 to coach lower league side, Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț, afterwards having his last first league spell at ASA Târgu Mureș in 1969. Petre Steinbach has a total of 190 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A consisting of 78 victories, 36 draws and 76 losses.

## Writing

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

## Death

He died in 1996 at age 90 in Germany, a country in which he settled since 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