Gruenfeld, Jozsef

Gruenfeld was a member of the famed Hakoah-Vienna club in the mid-1920s. The soccer team has been inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Birth and Death Dates:
unknown

Career Highlights:
A center forward, Gruenfeld was born in Germany and played for the Stuttgarter Kickers before joining Hakoah-Vienna of the Austrian League. In 1926, Gruenfeld was a member of Hakoah when they made a ten-game tour of the United States. They won six games, lost two, and drew two, while playing in front of a total of 200,000 people. On May 1, 1926, they played before a crowd of 46,000 at the Polo Grounds in New York, an American record for a soccer game until 1977.

Three years after the U.S. tour, Gruenfeld returned to play in the American Soccer League for a new franchise, the Brooklyn Hakoah. He appeared in seven games during the 1929 season and did not score a goal. The following year, he was a member of the Hakoah All-Stars, which combined the Brooklyn club of the ASL with the New York Hakoah of the Eastern Soccer League after the two teams merged. During the season, Hakoah finished in third place. Gruenfeld led the team in scoring with 15 goals (seventh in the league). The following year (1931), Gruenfeld again led the team in scoring with eight goals, and Hakoah repeated its third place standing. Gruenfeld retired from the ASL after the 1931 season.

Origin:
Germany

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