Hirzer began his football career in 1913 with local
Budapest side
Törekvés SE, which was put together by railroadmen. In the early 1920s, the club reached the upper parts of the
Hungarian League but it was largely dominated at the time by
MTK Budapest. After around a decade playing for his hometown club, Ferenc Hirzer moved to Czechoslovakia to play for Makkabi Brno. The following season, he moved to Germany to play for
Union 03 Altona in the city of
Hamburg, they finished runners-up in the
Norddeutsche Liga. For the 1925–26 season, Hirzer moved country again; this time to Italy with Turin giants
Juventus. A fellow Hungarian,
Jenő Károly was manager at the time and he had already brought former Törekvés player
József Viola to the club. He made his debut in October 1925 against
Parma scoring a
hat-trick.
Juventus were crowned champions of the
Italian Football Championship for the first time in 20 years; Hirzer himself had a very impressive end of season record, scoring 35 goals in astonishingly 24 games. This record for the most goals scored by a Juventus player in a single season in the best Italian league, then named
Prima Divisione, has never been broken. After one more season at
Juventus, where they finished 3rd behind
Torino and
Bologna he left Italian football. Hirzer had scored a total of 50 goals in 43 games for Juventus during his time with them. He returned to Hungary in 1927 and played for
MTK Hungária back in Budapest. During the 1928–29 season, Hirzer's final season as a player, the club won the Hungarian League title. After his playing career, Hirzer returned to Italy and managed several Italian clubs until around the time of his death, the club he managed for the longest period was
Salernitana in
Campania. ==International career==