Full name Wilhelm Huberts 1955–1960 Grazer AK Position Midfielder Years Team Height 1.79 m | Playing position Role Football player Name Wilhelm Huberts | |
Date of birth (1938-02-22) 22 February 1938 (age 77) | ||
Place of birth Voitsberg, Austria | ||
Wilhelm Huberts, also Willi or Willy Huberts (I) (born 22 February 1938 in Voitsberg, Styria) is a former Austrian football player.
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Club career
Huberts began his career in his hometown with ASK Voitsberg. From there he was transferred to Grazer AK, who got him to the Stadion an der Körösistraße in 1955. Through his immense technical skills and his scoring qualities he became a supporter's favourite in Graz.
When GAK played a couple of friendlies in New York in 1959, two of them against Real Madrid, it had causes for Huberts. The midfielder could convince at this tour, and so finally New York Hungarians of the German American Soccer League signed him in 1960. With this club he won National Challenge Cup (today Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup) in 1962.
In 1963 he went to Frankfurt in Germany. In this year the Bundesliga was founded and the Eagles from Hesse were a founding member. Huberts was one of only four foreign players in German pro football, and the only Austrian. In the 1960s team of Frankfurt he was a key player. With the jersey number 10 he scored 80 times for the boys from Main.
For the 1970–71 season he returned to Austria and joined Austria Wien and eventually his home club Grazer AK in 1971 and retired in 1975.
International career
The rising star set an unwanted end of his national team career for Austria. He was capped for four times between 1959 and 1960, while netting in his debut against Belgium on the 0–2 away win. With this club change to New York and the travel opportunities then he longer was eligible for Austria and even when he joined Eintracht Frankfurt he never played again for the national team. The reason was the politics of the clubs not to release foreign players except for big tournaments.