Wilhelm Possak, former Romanian international, was coach, player and scorer in the worst failure in the history of Sporting Lisbon!

Wilhelm – the version William also appeared in the media of the time, and the Hungarians called him “Vilmoș” – Possak was a player-coach at Sporting Lisbon between October 1935 and March 1937. The story of this “globe-trotter” is spectacular.

March 22, 1936, the day of the greatest nightmare of the “lions” and Wilhelm Possak

The match between FC Porto and Sporting Lisbon on March 22, 1936 counted for the first leg of the return of the first league in Portugal. In the tour, Sporting had lost only one match, with Benfica, and had drawn only once, with Boavista. He had beaten FC Porto at home with 3-2.

In the 30th minute of the game on March 22, 1936, FC Porto were leading Sporting 2-1. Former Romanian international Wilhelm Possak, who was a player-coach, had even scored for the guests. Then, at the end of the first half hour of the match, the goalkeeper Artur Dyson was seriously injured, being transported to the hospital.

As changes were not allowed in the era, striker Rui Carneiro entered the goal. FC Porto knew how to make the most of the handicap of the “lions”, scoring 4 goals in 9 minutes! By the end, the score “jumped” to 10-1. And today, almost 90 years after that moment, that score remains the club's negative record.

Sporting finished on the podium

“We have a firm belief – confirmed by the way the game played out – that if it hadn't happened for that incident which forced us to play three quarters of the match without a goalkeeper, the result could have been completely different. Would we have won? It would be bold to say that. But we can guarantee that the victory could have gone to either side, without much of a difference,” Sporting wrote in the club's magazine (which has existed almost since the formation of the group!) after the disgrace of the match with Porto.

Despite that humiliation of proportions, Sporting finished the 1935–36 season in 3rd place with 18 points from 14 games. In that season, there were only 8 teams in the Portuguese first league.

15matches he collected as a player for Sporting Wilhelm Possak. He scored 7 goals for the “lions”

Possak used the first Brazilians in Sporting's history

Wilhelm Possak did not remain in the history of Sporting as the coach who suffered the biggest failure of the club, but also as the technician who brought and used Brazilian footballers for the first time in the “lions” team!

During his tenure, goalkeeper Jaguare Bezerra de Vasconcelos, defender Marins Alves de Araujo Viana “Vianinha” and midfielder Fernando Giudicelli made their debuts, the first Brazilians in the history of the Sporting Lisbon club. Giudicelli later also became the first Brazilian in the history of Real Madrid.

The three and player-coach Wilhelm Possak were introduced with pomp in a 5-2 friendly with Vitoria Setubal on 25 October 1935. Possak played in the match where the three Brazilians were used for the first time, and the player-coach scored two goals.

Possak's first official game in Sporting's shirt was two days later, on October 27, 1935, when the green and whites beat Carcavelinhos 5-2 in the Lisbon Championship. And he scored his first official goal a few days later, on November 3, 1935, in the game with Barreirense, won 5-0, in the same competition.

Two trophies in the first year

Wilhelm Possak had been hired by Joaquim Oliveira Duarte in October 1935 after Sporting had been destroyed by Benfica 0-4 in the first leg of the Lisbon Championship, replacing Filipe dos Santos.

Beyond that terrible 1-10 with FC Porto and the 3rd place in the championship, the 1935-1936 season was not bad for Sporting.

The “Lions” won the Lisbon Championship after beating rivals Benfica 4-1 in the last round on February 12, 1936.

On July 5, 1936, Possak won his second trophy with Sporting, the “Campeonato de Portugal”. Although called “campeonato”, it was a knockout competition established in 1922, which from 1938 became the Portuguese Cup.

In the Portuguese championship, he made his debut as a player-coach in the first stage of the 1935-1936 season, Sporting – FC Porto 3-2, played on January 12, 1936. And he scored the first official goal in the Portuguese first league on February 2, 1936, in a match won 6-1 on the field of Academica Coimbra.

Coach Wilhelm Possak's record in his first year at Sporting Lisbon was 30 matches, 23 wins, two draws and only five defeats.

Benfica also got him fired

In the 1936-1937 season, Wilhelm Possak appeared in only one match as a player, but as a coach he collected 16 games (9 wins, 4 draws, 3 losses).

He won the Lisbon Championship once, in the Cup he didn't get to play a single match. And in the championship, a failure against Benfica, 1-4, on February 14, 1937 was fatal. Possak was on the “lions” bench until the 7th stage, 2-1 away to Carcavelinhos, on February 28, 1937.

But the president Joaquim Oliveira Duarte had already announced on February 27, 1937 that he had reached an agreement with the Hungarian technician Josef Szabo, who sat on the bench of the “lions” until 1945.

Two seasons, but none full, three trophies. That's how long Wilhelm Possak's adventure at Sporting lasted.

46of official matches had coach Wilhelm Possak at the helm of the “lions” from Sporting. He collected 32 wins, 6 draws and 8 losses

He changed clubs like socks!

Wilhelm Possak spent the best years of his career as a player and coach at Sporting Lisbon. But his story, a “globe-trotter” like not many, is much broader. Possak walked like no other.

He was born in Austria, played for the Romanian national team, played for clubs in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Romania. He also tried his luck in France, and at one point it was said that he would have received an offer from Argentina.

Wilhelm Possak was born in Vienna. Some sources indicate the date of birth as July 7, 1905, others – August 9, 1906.

He grew up in Timișoara, and he took his first steps as a footballer at Vasas Budapest, in the 1920-1921 season, for two more years (1921 – 1923) he was registered at Kalaposok SE. He returned to the city of his childhood, where he played at CAT (Club Atletic Timișoara) in the period 1923-1928.

He went to Bastya Szeged for two seasons, where he debuted in the Hungarian first league, and in the 1930-1931 season he won the title in Hungary with Ujpest Budapest. It continued to change almost annually. He was also registered at Vasas (1931 – 1932), Biel (Switzerland, 1932 – 1933), CAT Timișoara (1933 – 1934), Nordstern Basel (1935).

After the Sporting Lisbon spell, Possak started walking again. At SK Piestany, in today's Slovakia, then for the third time at CAT Timișoara, in 1938, where he was also a coach. References to many other “escape” attempts to Rennes or Argentina appeared in the press of the time.

64of games and 45 goals accumulated by “Vilmoș” Possak in the first Hungarian league

3matches and 1 goal he had in the first league in Romania, in the season 1939 – 1940. He collected many other games at CAT Timișoara, but in Division B or in the Regional Championship

The press constantly “rolled” the “adventurer”

In the media of the time, the eternal peregrinations of the footballer Wilhelm Possak were not seen very well. Here are some examples:

Football adventurers

Football, in addition to the great benefits it gives to those who practice it, as well as to those who protect them (!), also has its pitfalls. One of these is that it predisposes certain individuals to peregrinations across seas and countries, according to the advantages offered to them. We also have one of these adventurers, Possak, a former CAT team member, who – after a long stay in Switzerland – returned to the country, to take refuge again in Switzerland (in Bern), from where he made a half-way turn: he stopped in Budapest.

Indeed, Possak obtained extradition to Switzerland, and now he has fallen into the nets of the Budapest club Cartierul III. At the last practice, Possak gave satisfaction, being immediately hired. However, it remains to be extradited from the Swiss federation, so that it can be used in official matches.

All would be well, if only this fervent traveler does not miss the duke again. For “the traveler is well pleased with the road.”

The tragedy of Possak…

The former player from Timișoara – in the rush for a commitment – roams the world without success

One of the most “nomadic” players in Romania is, of course, the former Timișoara Possak, the forward center of the CAT club. Where has this international player not been! Through Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Spain, France.
He is currently – for how long?… – in France, where he is trying to get a commitment. He is in talks with the Rennes group, but – according to the reports of the French newspapers – “this Hungarian center forward, although he seems to have class, his game does not match that of the Breton team enough”. Which means categorically: no correspondence. So he can't be hired.

And the wanderings will begin again, until Possak realizes that he is no longer what he once was.
A small tragedy that easily goes unnoticed. It is, by the way, the fate of all stars.

Two coaches who worked in Romania
Platko and Possak
is employed in South America

The former coach of the group Venus asks them to move to America. Platko and former CAT player Possak have been in advanced negotiations with some South American groups to hire them as coaches.

The last answer, which they received from South America, is to submit to trial exams. It is unlikely that in this situation any…

Matches played for Romania

Wilhelm Possak played two matches in the jersey of the Romanian national team. He debuted on April 15, 1928, in Romania – Turkey, score 4-2, played in Arad. On May 6, 1928, Possak scored Romania's only goal in a clear 1-3 defeat of Yugoslavia in Zagreb.

Possak performed alongside Rudolf Wetzer, Emerich Vogl, Mihai Taenzer, Grațian Sepi, Aurel Guga, the great stars of the “tricolors” 100 years ago.

Wilhelm Possak disappeared from the world of football after the Second World War. Not many details about his life are known. It is only known that Wilhelm Possak died on April 4, 1988.