Adalbert Steiner

Adalbert Steiner II (24 January 1907 – 10 December 1984) was a Romanian football defender.

Adalbert Steiner

Steiner in 1966
Personal information
Date of birth	(1907-01-24)24 January 1907
Place of birth	Temesvár, Austria-Hungary
Date of death	10 December 1984(1984-12-10) (aged 77)
Position	Defender
Youth career
1920–1921	AVTK Timișoara
1921–1922	Unirea Timișoara
1922–1924	Chinezul Timișoara
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1924–1930	Chinezul Timișoara[a]	32	(0)
1930	CA Timișoara
International career
1926–1930	Romania	10	(0)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Steiner was born on 24 January 1907 in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary (now Romania).^[1][2][3] He began playing junior-level football at age 13 for local club AVTK.^[2] In 1921 he moved to newly-founded club Unirea.^[1][2][3] One year later he went to play for Chinezul Timișoara.^[1][2][3]

In 1924 at age 17, Steiner started to play for the senior squad of Chinezul, winning three consecutive titles in his first three seasons.^[1][2][3] In the first two title wins, he worked with coach Frontz Dőme who used him in 17 matches in the second season.^[1][2][4] For the third title he played 15 games under coaches Dőme and Jenő Konrád, also being teammates with his brother, Rudolf.^[1][2][4][5] His last club career spell took place in 1930 at CA Timișoara.^[1][3][6]

International career

Steiner played ten games for Romania.^[6] He and his brother Rudolf made their debut together on 7 May 1926 under coach Teofil Morariu in a friendly that ended with a 3–1 away victory against Turkey.^[6][7] He played in two victories against Yugoslavia and Greece in the 1929–31 Balkan Cup, a tournament that was won by Romania.^[6][8]

Steiner was selected by coach Constantin Rădulescu to be part of Romania's squad for the 1930 World Cup.^[2][3][6] There, he played in the first group stage game, a 3–1 victory against Peru in which he was injured by opponent Plácido Galindo (a challenge for which Galindo received the first sending-off in World Cup history) – an injury from which he never recovered, ending his career at age 23.^{[2][3][6][9][10]} The second game was a 4–0 loss to hosts and eventual world champions Uruguay.^[3]

Personal life

Steiner's father, Karl Steiner, was a Bohemian-born engineer who settled in Temesvár, where he married and had eight children.^[2][11] One of Steiner's brothers, Rudolf, was also a footballer, and they played together for Chinezul Timișoara and Romania's national team.^[2][3] In 1941, Steiner married a woman named Aurora Subolotzky, with whom he had two sons, Iosif and Adalbert.^[2]

Death

Steiner died on 10 December 1987 at age 87 in his native Timișoara.^[1][3][6]

Honours

Chinezul Timișoara

• Divizia A: 1924–25, 1925–26, 1926–27^[1][4]

Romania

• Balkan Cup: 1929–31^[6][8]

Notes

1. Only the statistics for the 1925–26 and 1926–27 Divizia A seasons are available.^[1]