Lazăr Sfera

Lazăr Sfera (29 April 1909 – 24 April 1992) was a Romanian footballer who played as a defender and occasionally as a midfielder. A native of the Banat region in Austria-Hungary, he was briefly included in the Romanian Yugoslav community. In the 1920s, he moved with his family to Timișoara, which had been secured for the Romanian Kingdom. It was here that he began playing a variety of sports, including street football. The boy was discovered by the scouts of Unirea CFR, which became his first club.

In 1925, Sfera joined Politehnica Timișoara's first-ever youth squad. Two years later, he was promoted to the main team, where he came to be mentored by Tony Cargnelli. Sfera impressed the Timișoara fans with his performances in local derbies, and had a stint at Banatul. However, he decided to focus mainly on his education: moving to Cluj for a chance to attend its business school, he played for România Cluj (1929–1931) and Universitatea (1931–1934).

Upon graduation, Sfera took the option of relocating to Bucharest, signing up with Venus București (and marrying his boss' daughter); in subsequent matches against Universitatea, he was sent off for participating in violence against his former teammates. He also became entangled in political controversies, being upheld as an ally by the far-right of Romanian nationalism at a time when many Divizia A players belonged to ethnic minorities.

Sfera and Gheorghe Albu together formed the core of Venus' defense, helping the team win three successive editions of Divizia A.