Ripensia Timişoara

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Ripensia Timişoara was a football team from the Romanian city of Timişoara. It was the first professional football club in Romania. It seems that the name was inspired by the Roman Empire province of "Dacia Ripensis", organized in that region of Romania, which is today called Banat.

It was founded in 1928 by Dr. Cornel Lazăr, a famous promoter of football in the Banat region, and the former president of "Chinezul Timişoara". The players came from "Chinezul", "C.A.T." and "Poli". Due to its professional status, until 1932-1933 (the first season of the National League - Divizia A), the team and its players could not participate in official national competitions.

They were champions of the Romanian Football League in 1933, 1935, 1936, and 1938, with two Romanian Cup appearances, winning 3-2 over Universitatea Cluj in 1934 and 5-1 over Unirea Tricolor Bucureşti in 1936. They were national vice-champions for 1933-34 and 1938-39. After WWII, due to financial problems, the communist sports organisation and "backstairs actions", Ripensia played in Divizia B and Divizia C. After 1948, without any support, it disappeared, merging with "Electrica Timişoara".

Their colours were red-yellow. Their home stadium was called "Electrica" (today "UMT"; the original wooden stand was demolished in 2004-2005).

Their greatest players were:

Goalkeepers: William Zombory, Dumitru Pavlovici
Defenders: Rudolf Burger, Balazs Hoksary
Midfielders: Vasile Chiroiu II, Vasile Deheleanu, Rudolf Kotormany, Eugen Lakatos, Nicolae Simatoc
Forwards: Gheorghe Oprean, Zoltan Beke, Silviu Bindea, Gheorghe Ciolac, Ştefan Dobay, Ladislau Raffinski, Alexandru Schwartz, Graţian Sepi II, Mihai Tanzer

[edit] Record

Divizia A: (9 editions) 184 110 28 46 512 - 277
Divizia B: (1 edition) 29 12 4 13 44 - 54
Divizia C: (1 edition) 18 13 14 1 48 - 21
Total: (11 editions) 231 135 46 60
604 - 352

Ripensia in Divizia A: