Yozhef Yozhefovich Sabo ( uk, Йожеф Йожефович Сабо; hu, Szabó József; born 29 February 1940) is a former Ukrainian football player and football manager. He is of Hungarian background. He is baptized as a

Greek-Catholic The term Greek Catholic Church can refer to a number of Eastern Catholic Churches following the Byzantine (Greek) liturgy, considered collectively or individually. The terms Greek Catholic, Greek Catholic church or Byzantine Catholic, Byzantine Ca ...

.Йожеф Йожефович Сабо – боец-футболист и мудрец-наставник. (Yozhef Yozhefovich Sabo – a footballer-fighter and a wise mentor)
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Playing career

Club

Sabo began to play in 1954 for a team of Uzhhorod bread factory and his first coach was Zoltan Gyorfi ( hu, Győrfi Zoltán). Later until August 1957 he was playing as a forward for Khimik Kalush in competitions among KFK of the Ukrainian SSR. From September 1957 to May 1959 Sabo played in Class B (second tier) for Spartak Uzhhorod. Sabo made his name as a player at

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was officia ...

, appearing at the club from June 1959 to 1969. A four-time

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (russian: Чемпионат СССР по футболу: Высшая лига), served as the top division of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The professional top level ...

champion, Sabo appeared in 317 games in the competition, scoring 51 goals. His first game he played in a friendly against

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

on 1 June 1959. In July 1963 Sabo was disqualified for a year for a rough play, but in February 1964 it was changed to a conditional disqualification. Also in 1968 he was disqualified again for refusing to play for the

Soviet national football team The Soviet Union national football team ( rus, сбо́рная СССР по футбо́лу, r=sbórnaya SSSR po futbólu) was the national football team of the former Soviet Union. After the breakup of the Union the team was transformed i ...

. Sabo was a member of Dynamo Kyiv when the club in 1961 for the first time gained the Soviet title, breaking the Muscovite spell. To the Kyiv's team he arrived along with two other Uzhhorod players Andriy Havasi and Vasyl Turianchyk.

International

Aside from being named one of the 33 best players in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

for five years, Sabo capped 76 times for the USSR national side, scoring 16 goals. He played in 41 official matches and 35 friendlies. Sabo made his international debut in away game against

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

on 3 October 1965 (see 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 7). Sabo mentioned that the game took place after in Greece took place the

Apostasia of 1965 The terms ''Apostasia'' ( el, Αποστασία, " Apostasy") or ''Iouliana'' ( el, Ιουλιανά, "July events") or the Royal Coup ( el, Το Βασιλικό Πραξικόπημα ''To Vasiliko Praxikopima'') are used to describe the politic ...

(Royal Coup). While his official first appearance for the Soviet team was in 1965, Sabo was on the 1962 Soviet team roster for the

1962 FIFA World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the seventh edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place be ...

Coaching career

However, Sabo became most famous for his coaching, coaching various sides in the late 70s (such as

Zorya Luhansk FC Zorya Luhansk ( uk, ФК «Зоря» Луганськ ) is a Ukrainian football team. Zorya Luhansk is based in the city of Luhansk, Ukraine. However, because of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the team play their games at Slavutych-Arena in Zapor ...

in 1977 and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in 1978–1979), he has coached Dynamo Kyiv numerous times (from 1993 to 1997 and 2004–2005, with breaks in between). He is also arguably the second-most successful coach of the Ukrainian national team, compiling 16 wins and 12 draws in 34 matches as coach of the side in 1994 and 1996–1999. On 20 September 2007 he was appointed as

's manager after Anatoliy Demyanenko resigned. However, Sabo resigned in early November that year due to personal health problems. He left Dynamo Kyiv by the end of 2007 and has no longer been involved with the club since that time.

Personal life

Sabo was born on a

leap year A leap year (also known as an intercalary year or bissextile year) is a calendar year that contains an additional day (or, in the case of a lunisolar calendar, a month) added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year or ...

on 29 February. Sabo has his house near Verecke Pass (

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

) where he lives with his wife.Under high voltage, the most noted Hungarian football coach
Index.hu. 17 May 2005 In a 2005 interview, he also said that always wanted to coach the

Hungarian national football team The Hungary national football team ( hu, magyar labdarúgó-válogatott) represents Hungary in men's international football and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation. The team has made 9 appearances in the FIFA World Cup and 4 appe ...

, but the

Hungarian Football Federation The Hungarian Football Federation ( hu, Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség, MLSZ) is the governing body of football in Hungary. It organizes the Hungarian league and the Hungarian national team. It is based in Budapest. Honours ;National Team * Worl ...

leaders never gave him a concrete offer. At night from 2 onto 3 October 2007 Sabo had a heart attack due to which he was immediately taken to hospital. Doctors managed to save him, but he was prohibited to work due to a weak heart.Greetings from the Kiev Football Federation
Kiev Football Federation. In a 2015 interview, Sabo stated that the away game against Benfica in the

1991–92 European Cup The 1991–92 European Cup was the 37th season of the European Cup football club tournament. It was the first European Cup to have a group stage, from which the winning clubs progressed to the final. 1991–92 was the tournament's last edition b ...

that Dynamo lost 0–5 was fixed. Verbytsky, I.
Yozhef Sabo: In Moscow I was constantly called fascist
'. UA-Football. 4 March 2015. He also mentioned that in Moscow he was called fascist, because there knew that his father served in the

Royal Hungarian Army The Royal Hungarian Army ( hu, Magyar Királyi Honvédség, german: Königlich Ungarische Armee) was the name given to the land forces of the Kingdom of Hungary in the period from 1922 to 1945. Its name was inherited from the Royal Hungarian Hon ...

during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and later for that, he was exiled to Siberia. Russian language Sabo started to learn after arriving to Kyiv and with a help of a tutor. Sabo was offered to join Komsomol and Communist Party but declined to explain that he cannot be communist and stay religious. Even after arriving in Kyiv he continued to attend an underground Greek-Catholic service that was taken place in

Sviatoshyn Sviatoshyn ( uk, Свято́шин, Svjatóshin, ; also or ) is a historical neighborhood and a suburb of Ukraine's capital Kyiv that is located on the western edge of the city area, in an eponymous municipality. Previously it was a dacha ...

. Sabo said that he became the only Ukrainian who received the medal from the 1966 FIFA World Cup, while at the same time Valeriy Porkujan who also played at the Mundial was left without it. When the Soviets beat Hungary in the quarterfinals, Sabo was forced to hear all kinds of sentiments from his former compatriots. Sabo also explained that the reason why he refused to travel to Hungary with the Soviet national team for the

quarter-final A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

game was that he tried to finish his journalist degree in

Kyiv University Kyiv University or Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv ( uk, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка), colloquially known as KNU ...

. The Soviet team then qualified and without Sabo, but he was disqualified. In 1970 after a short stint in Luhansk, Sabo for a couple of months was working as a sports correspondent of Ukrainian newspaper "Pravda Ukrainy". In 1960 when Dynamo was playing an away friendly against FC Bayern Munich, Sabo said that he was approached by Bayern's goalie Árpád Fazekas who offered him to remain in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Honours

Player

Dynamo Kyiv *

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (K ...

, 1966,

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

Soviet Cup The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (russian: Кубок СССР),, be, Кубак СССР, uz, СССР Кубоги, kk, КСРО Кубогы, ka, სსრკ თასი, az, ССРИ кубоку, lt, TSRS taurė, ro, Cupa URSS ( Moldov ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

, 1965–66 Dynamo Moscow *

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

runner-up: 1971–72

Manager

Dynamo Kyiv * Vyshcha Liha: 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97 *

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( uk, Кубок України) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003� ...

: 1995–96, 2004–05

Orders

* Order of Merit, a full cavalier of the order ** 3rd degree (15 October 1999) ** 2nd degree (12 October 2004) ** 1st degree (1 December 2011)

References

External links

* Verbytsky, I.
Yozhef Sabo: In Moscow I was constantly called fascist
'. UA-Football. 4 March 2015. *

at the RussiaTeam {{DEFAULTSORT:Sabo, Yozhef 1940 births Living people Sportspeople from Uzhhorod Soviet people of Hungarian descent Soviet footballers Soviet Top League players Soviet First League players FC Kalush players FC Dynamo Kyiv players FC Dynamo Moscow players FC Hoverla Uzhhorod players FC Zorya Luhansk players 1962 FIFA World Cup players 1966 FIFA World Cup players Olympic footballers of the Soviet Union Footballers at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union Soviet football managers Soviet Union international footballers FC Zorya Luhansk managers FC CSKA Kyiv managers FC Dnipro managers FC Dynamo Kyiv managers Soviet Top League managers Soviet First League managers Soviet Second League managers Ukrainian Premier League managers Olympic medalists in football Ukraine national football team managers Ukrainian people of Hungarian descent Hungarian Eastern Catholics Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Ukrainian football managers Association football midfielders