{"id":3393,"date":"2022-07-25T19:16:14","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T18:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=3393"},"modified":"2022-07-25T19:18:33","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T18:18:33","slug":"what-if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2022\/07\/25\/what-if\/","title":{"rendered":"What If?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Egri Erbstein Tournament 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (July 23rd<\/sup> 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dominant<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t just Italy\u2019s dominant club team that perished at the Basilica of Superga on May 4th<\/sup> 1949, it was the Azzurri, then the defending World Champions. The World Cup itself was postponed for a year to accommodate Italy. Shorn of its spine and flesh too, Italy failed to make any impact in the 1950 World Cup, leaving one of football\u2019s great what ifs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for Superga, how many more titles could Torino have won and would Italy have won the World Cup three times in a row, thereby establishing them as an all-time great footballing nation before Brasil had even broken their duck?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is another what if. After impressing at Lucchese, Ern\u0151 Egri Erbstein was given his big opportunity at Torino. He rapidly made his mark, instilling his new methods on many aspects of the game. The Torino Revolution was underway in 1938. It led to Il Grande Torino, but it wasn\u2019t just the Superga Disaster that robbed us of this great team \u2013 they started late because of racist laws forcing the architect of their success to flee Italy in 1939.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lost Years<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erbstein returned to Torino in 1946. He was welcomed back. They had already won two of their five in a row, but there had been a two seasons long gap due to World War II and they had lost three seasons of Erbstein\u2019s influence due to Italy\u2019s Anti-Semitic laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Torino was a very good team at the time when the break robbed them of the chance to add to their tally \u2013 they may not have, but undeniably they had the potential to do so. And there were the early years of Erbstein\u2019s exile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Escaping the Holocaust<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erbstein had to flee Italy in 1939 after fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini\u2019s anti-Semitic laws and the ever-growing threat of World War II left the Hungarian Jewish football pioneer fearing for his safety. It was a mixed blessing as in December 1944 he had to escape from a forced labour camp in Hungary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erbstein had escaped Anti-Semitism in Italy only to fall victim to it in the land of his birth. The conservative nationalist, Admiral Mikl\u00f3s Horthy de Nagyb\u00e1nya, had been Regent and ruled Hungary for many years. Horthy was no friend to Jews, but the tide of the war was turning. Sensing the way the war was going to end Horthy refused the deportation plans of the Nazis \u2013 Hungary had one of Europe\u2019s largest Jewish populations at the time \u2013 and tried to reach agreement with his great foe the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). That enraged the Nazis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Horthy was removed from power despite his acquiescence to Hitler. That ushered in the overtly fascist Arrow Cross government of Ferenc Sz\u00e1lasi, who was executed for war crimes and crimes against humanity in March 1946. Sz\u00e1lasi was an ardent Nazi. The racist laws gave Jews little option but to surrender themselves, which meant forced labour camps. 1944 was a torrid time for Jews in Hungary as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Football exploits meant nothing to their persecutors. There was no other choice. Together with another Hungarian Jewish football pioneer, B\u00e9la Guttmann and three others, Erbstein escaped from the forced labour camp in Hungary after learning that they faced deportation, which amounted to a death sentence for Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\u00e9la Guttmann \u2013 Comrades in Adversity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guttmann was hidden by his then girlfriend\u2019s brother; Erbstein by his extended family. Both survived the war and resumed their football careers. They never met again. Guttmann established his own legacy, especially at Benfica over a decade after Erbstein lost his life in the Superga Disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is famed for Guttmann\u2019s Curse which affects the Portuguese giants to this day. After winning the European Cup 5-3 against Real Madrid in 1962, Guttmann resigned in disgust when Benfica refused to give him a raise. He told them that Benfica would not win a European trophy for a hundred years. Not even the great Eus\u00e9bio da Silva Ferreira could get the Curse lifted \u2013 his prayers at Guttmann\u2019s grave in Vienna in 1990 were not enough \u2013 Benfica lost their fifth European Cup 1-0 to AC Milan. They had also lost in 1963, 1965, 1968 and 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benfica\u2019s miserable run now stands at five defeats in the European Cup and three in the UEFA Cup or its successor, the Europa League \u2013 60 years and counting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his wartime experiences at the hands of Nazis, Guttmann delivered Benfica\u2019s only European triumphs during the dictatorship of Ant\u00f3nio de Oliveira Salazar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dominic Bliss’ Book on Erbstein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Erbstein was largely forgotten about until Dominic Bliss\u2019 book, Erbstein: The Triumph and Tragedy of Football\u2019s Forgotten Pioneer <\/em>published in 2014 by Blizzard Books<\/strong> highlighted his achievements and amazing life once more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (July 23rd 2022) Dominant It wasn\u2019t just Italy\u2019s dominant club team that perished at the Basilica of Superga on May [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,14],"tags":[232,231,227,225,226,230,228,229],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3393"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3393"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3398,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3393\/revisions\/3398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}