Lukas Aurednik

Lukas "Harry" Aurednik (20 February 1918 – 2 June 1997) was an international Austrian football player and football manager.

Club career
Aurednik began his football career as a goalkeeper for the small club, Sportclub Staatsfabrik and was soon used as field player due to his footballing skills. Initially as a right wing-back, he transformed himself into a striker and received his first professional contract with Rapid Wien in 1935. In 1938, with the Hütteldorfers, he won the last championship in Austria before its annexation to the German Reich. From 1938 he played for several years at TuS Neuendorf and in the meantime briefly played at Spandauer SV, the lower-class club Rot-Weiß Iserlohn and at LSV Wolfenbüttel, before moving to MSV Brno was transferred to the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. However, he played with the Brno team in the Gauliga Sudetenland, which he won with his club in 1943 and could therefore have played in the final round of the German championship. But after a short return to Rapid Wien, Aurednik was transferred to LSV Markersdorf in the same year and reached the "reception club for drafted football professionals", as the Wehrmacht club was also called, and the already players like Karl Durspekt, Karl Sesta, Max Merkel, Walter Dzur and Paul Zielinski, achieved sixth place in the East Mark Gauliga in the 1943–44 season.

In 1944, however, Aurednik was able to return to Rapid, where he stayed until 1946. With the green and whites he also became the first Austrian football champion and cup winner in post-war Austria in the 1945–46 season. As a left winger, he contributed 28 goals in 20 championship games and 7 goals in 3 cup games. In 1946 he finally went abroad in France and joined CO Roubaix-Tourcoing, where he was only able to play in the reserve team due to the lack of approval from the ÖFB, but was also involved in youth training. He returned to Austria in 1948 and, after his pardon, played for Austria Wien six months later. There, as a left winger in combination with his elegant connecting striker Ernst Stojaspal, he formed the best striker in the league and was quickly able to build on his old goalscoring qualities. With the Violets he won the Austrian championship title three times in 1949, 1950 and 1953 and also the cup competition in 1949.

Aurednik, who was nicknamed "the magician" by fans, became known primarily for his scissor jumps, which literally confused his opponents, and for the famous "railway worker insult" (pushing the ball back and forth with the sole of the foot). In terms of his stature, he was a lightweight, but technically highly gifted and extremely strong in sprinting. His speed also gave him his name “Harry”, which stuck to him after a game against an English team. Because of his strength, the British fans celebrated him with calls of "hurry, hurry", which then became – loosely translated in Viennese – "Harry".

After becoming player-coach at the lower-tier SC Austria Lustenau in 1953, Aurednik went to France again in 1954, where he initially played for Lens for two years and scored six goals in 29 appearances in the French Division 1 in his first season. In the 1955–56 season he and his team reached the runner-up position alongside Erich Habitzl, where he was used 15 times in the 34 game rounds. From 1956 to 1958 he was active in Division 2 at Le Havre and scored 12 goals in 60 championship games.

International career
Aurednik played for Austria in 1948 when he was already 30 years old. The late-career Viennese made his debut for Austria in the game against Czechoslovakia on 31 October 1948 in Pressburg. In total, he played 14 international matches for the national team until 1950. After a game against the Scotland, he was left out of the squad and was no longer called up.

AEK Athens
In 1959, with the creation of the unified Alpha Ethniki, he took over AEK Athens, which under his guidance tied with Panathinaikos in first place of the standings, losing the title in a play-off match 2–1 and thus finishing in second place. He started on the AEK bench the following season as well, only to be replaced as first coach in December 1960 by Tryfon Tzanetis, but remained in the coaching team alongside Tzanetis, and Ribas as an advisor.

Pierikos
In 1961, he took over as a coach in the newly-formed team of Pierikos. During his spell, Pierikos in a total of 37 games managed 26 wins, 7 draws and 4 losses, with a total of 116 goals for and 22 against. The defeat in Kavala at the hands of the local Iraklis on 3 June 1962 resulted in the loss of a direct promotion to Alpha Ethiki was blamed on Aurednik and caused his contract to be terminated and was replaced by Kleanthis Vikelidis.

Ethnikos Piraeus
Afterwards, Aurednik became coach of Ethnikos Piraeus, where he remained for about a year. His son, Jürgen was in the 1962–63 season a player for Ethnikos, recording three appearances and a goal, which he scored in Ethnikos' 3–2 defeat in Toumba Stadium by PAOK on 23 December 1962.

Anorthosis Famagusta
From 1963 to 1965 Auretnik was in Cyprus as coach of Anorthosis Famagusta, with whom he won the 1964 Cup, as well as the Cypriot Super Cup at the start of the following season.

Panaitolikos
After his spell at Cyprus, Aurednik returned to Greece took over Panetolikos in 1965, which was his last Greek club he coached.

Wiener Neustetter
The continuation of his career found him again in Cyprus, from where at the end of 1967 he returned to his homeland and took over as coach of the 1. Wiener Neustädter SC, replacing Karl Kohler. With him at the wheel, the team recorded a mediocre run in the 1967–68 season, while making a very poor start the following season, which led to his sacking after the end of the first round in early 1969.

Charleroi
In the spring of 1970 he took charge of Charleroi in Belgium, remaining on their bench until 1971, the last recorded stop of his career.

Death
Auretnik died at 2 June 1997 at the age of 79.

As a player

 * Rapid Wien
 * Austrian Football Bundesliga (2): 1937–38, 1945–46
 * Tschammer-Pokal (1): 1938


 * Austria Wien
 * Austrian Football Bundesliga (3): 1948–49, 1949–50, 1952–53
 * Austrian Cup (1): 1948–49

As a manager

 * Anorthosis Famagusta
 * Cypriot Cup (1): 1963–64
 * Cypriot Super Cup (1): 1964