Ján Podhradský (31 August 1917 – 15 December 1998) was a

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who represented both

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

and

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

internationally.

Club career

He was born during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in the town of

Kisač Kisač ( sr-cyr, Кисач; Slovak: Kysáč) is a suburban settlement of the city of Novi Sad, Serbia. The settlement has a Slovak ethnic majority. Name In Serbian and Croatian the village is known as ''Kisač'' (Кисач); in Slovak as ...

,Jan Podhradski
at Reprezentacija.rs on the outskirts of

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...

, at the time still part of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

but after the war became part of

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

and subsequently Yugoslavia. He started playing in a local club named SŠK Bački Petrovac which was a club gathering the local Slovakian community. It was while playing there that he got spotted by one of the major regional clubs,

FK Vojvodina Fudbalski klub Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Војводина), commonly known as Vojvodina and colloquially as Voša ( sr-Cyrl, Воша), is a Serbian professional football club based in Novi Sad, Serbia, the second large ...

, which brought him to their ranks in 1935. His technical abilities were highlighted by the local press, and soon he became the target of BSK Belgrade, the Serbian club which was dominating the Yugoslav championship in the 1930s. One year after joining Vojvodina, Podhradský was again on the move, this time to the capital Belgrade. He became the regular left midfielder of BSK during the three seasons he played with BSK. He made 28 appearances scoring 16 goals in the two editions of the Yugoslav championship he played with BSK, the last one crowned with the national trophy. In 1939 BSK was bringing numerous new players, and Podhradský left and joined SK Štefanik, a club from Stara Pazova, where he played until 1941 when Second World War started in Yugoslavia with the Axis invasion of the country. That is when Podhradský leaves Yugoslavia and moves to the country his parents came from Slovakia, which was now Nazi-German supported independent state after the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Podhradský settles in the capital

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

and is immediately incorporated into the Slovak most dominant club, ŠK Bratislava. Since his arrival in 1941 till his retirement in 1947 Podhradský made 124 goals in 153 official matches for ŠK Bratislava, and has won two national titles, in 1942 and 1944. He then retired and lived in Bratislava until his death in 1998. His name in Slovakian is Ján Podhradský, although during the period he played in Yugoslavia his name was often spelled in a simplified version as ''Jan Podhradski'' (Cyrillic: Јан Подхрадски).

International career

Podhradský is among the players that played for two different national teams. He represented

in a friendly match against Romania in 1938, and, after moving to Slovakia, he played four times for

in friendlies, in the period Slovak national team was active during the war.Ján Podhradský
at EU-Football.info

Honours

BSK Belgrade *

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First League ( Bosnian: Prva savezna liga u fudbalu, sr-Cyrl-Latn, Прва савезна лига у фудбалу, Prva savezna liga u fudbalu, , , , , ) was the premier football league in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) ...

: 1938-39 ŠK Bratislava * Slovak League: 1942, 1944

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Podhradsky, Jan 1917 births 1998 deaths Footballers from Novi Sad Slovak people of Serbian descent Men's association football midfielders Yugoslav men's footballers Yugoslavia men's international footballers Slovak men's footballers Slovakia men's international footballers Dual internationalists (men's football) FK Vojvodina players OFK Beograd players ŠK Slovan Bratislava players Yugoslav First League players Slovak National Football League players Czechoslovak First League players