Ladislav Petráš (born 1 December 1946) is a former Slovak football player. He played 19 matches for Czechoslovakia national team and scored six goals. Petráš was a participant at the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May t ...

, where he played three matches and scored two goals. Petráš also took part in the

Euro 1976 The 1976 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Yugoslavia. This was the fifth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 16 and 20 June 1976. Only f ...

, where his team won the gold medal. After scoring Czechoslovakia's only goal against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Petráš celebrated kneeling and doing the

sign of the cross Making the sign of the cross ( la, signum crucis), or blessing oneself or crossing oneself, is a ritual blessing made by members of some branches of Christianity. This blessing is made by the tracing of an upright cross or + across the body with ...

, demonstrating his

Catholic faith The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in defiance against the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, which was contrary to any religious belief. Petras continues to be a Roman Catholic. In the second match of the tournament, Petráš scored the first goal of the match against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

at the 4th minute. Domestically Petráš played for Dukla Banská Bystrica and later for

Inter Bratislava FK Inter Bratislava () is a football club based in Bratislava, Slovakia, temporarily playing its home matches in Stupava. History Inter Bratislava was founded in 1940 by the Apollo refinery (later renamed Slovnaft). Following the end of World Wa ...

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* * * * * 1946 births Living people People from Prievidza 1970 FIFA World Cup players Czechoslovak footballers Czechoslovakia international footballers FK Inter Bratislava players Slovak footballers Slovak Roman Catholics Olympic footballers of Czechoslovakia Footballers at the 1968 Summer Olympics UEFA Euro 1976 players UEFA European Championship-winning players Slovak football managers Slovakia national under-21 football team managers FK Inter Bratislava managers Association football forwards FK Dukla Banská Bystrica players FC Baník Prievidza players Wiener AC players Expatriate footballers in Austria Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in Austria SK Vorwärts Steyr players {{Slovakia-footy-forward-stub