Foreign players have become part and parcel of our national game but this was not always the case.
Before the mid-1930s there were a number of foreign players playing in the First Division but they were, without exception, servicemen or products of the naval dockyard.
Many of them, like William McAllister and Archie Caunter, made a name for themselves during their stay here.
In 1927, SK Floridorfer, of Austria, played a series of matches at the old Empire Sports Ground. Their centre-half was a tall and clever footballer, moulded in the old Austrian school. His name was Leo Drucker, a Hungarian of Jewish origins.
No one then thought for one moment that this dominating figure would one day become the very first player-coach to be engaged by a local club. When he came to Malta, Drucker was still a very good player but, more important, he was a fine coach and contributed handsomely towards the improvement of the Maltese game.
Drucker was engaged by Floriana in season 1935-36. It was the signal for other clubs to try to emulate the Greens’ venture. Within a year, Maltese football was full of imported players from the United Kingdom and central Europe.
The first to move were Sliema Wanderers. They startled their fans when announcing that they had secured the signature of Matthias Kaburek.
Kaburek was a famous Austrian international centre-half. However, when the Blues’ officials met their new capture in nearby Sicily, he turned out to be Matthias’s brother, Hans.
Hans was quite a good player in his own right and rendered sterling service to both Sliema Wanderers and Sliema Rangers.
Not to be outdone by their two chief rivals, Hibs imported their own players too. Having lost goalkeeper Harry Edwards to the Wanderers at the start of the season, their immediate need was a reliable man between the posts. This they found in Alex Svoboda, a promising Austrian goalkeeper.
Once the influx of imported players was started there was nothing to stop it.
In 1936-37, the four major clubs vied with each other to land the biggest fish. Two of the best acquisitions were Jozip Krcil, by Floriana, and Gayer, by Sliema Wanderers. Only two years previously Krcil played for Czechoslovakia in the World Cup. Gayer was a Yugoslav international defender.
Notable among the other acquisitions were Bobby Walker and the Muster brothers, by Hibernians, and Pushman and Frisch by St George’s.
Freiberger, Lowinger, Frimmer and Pinter were engaged between 1936 and 1938 by Sliema Wanderers in an attempt to fill their centre-half berth.
The irony was that none of these fine footballers managed to solve Sliema’s problem. Each time the Blues had to recall their old faithful, Kelinu Azzopardi, to fill the role.
The two Leos, Marat and Dunne, were both first-class acquisitions by Floriana. Both were worthy replacements for the great Drucker.
This imposing list of foreign players who came to Malta between 1935 and 1938 gives an indication of the high standard of the game here around 70 years ago.
The majority of these players, especially those who came from central Europe, were of Jewish origin and they were here to escape the persecution of the Nazis.
They played in Malta to make enough money for a ticket fare to the United States where they started a new life.