József Zakariás (25 March 1924 – 22 November 1971) was a Hungarian

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 ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

. During the 1950s he was a member of the legendary

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

team known as the ''Mighty Magyars''. Other members of the team included

Nándor Hidegkuti Nándor Hidegkuti (3 March 1922 – 14 February 2002) was a Hungarian football player and manager. He played as a forward or attacking midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career at MTK Hungária FC. During the 1950s he was also ...

Ferenc Puskás Ferenc Puskás (, ; born Ferenc Purczeld; 1 April 1927 – 17 November 2006) was a Hungarian football player and manager, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the sport's first international superstar. A forwar ...

Zoltán Czibor Zoltán Czibor (23 August 1929 – 1 September 1997) was a Hungarian footballer who played for several Hungarian clubs, including Ferencváros and Budapest Honvéd, and the Hungary national team before joining CF Barcelona. Czibor played as ...

Sándor Kocsis Sándor Péter Kocsis (; ; 21 September 1929 – 22 July 1979) was a Hungarian footballer who played for Ferencváros TC, Budapest Honvéd, Young Fellows Zürich, FC Barcelona and Hungary as a striker. During the 1950s, along with Ferenc Pusk ...

and

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MTK Hungária FC

Zakariás was born and died in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

and spent the peak of his career at

MTK Hungária FC Magyar Testgyakorlók Köre Budapest Futball Club or shortly MTK is a Hungarian football club based in Józsefváros, Budapest. The team currently plays in the Nemzeti Bajnokság II. The club's colours are blue and white. As one of the most suc ...

. However while he was with the club they were known as ''Bástya SE'' and then ''Vörös Lobogó SE''. Under coach

Márton Bukovi Márton Bukovi (10 December 1903 – 2 February 1985) was a Hungarian association football player and manager. After playing for Ferencvárosi TC, FC Sète and Hungary he became a coach, most notably with Građanski Zagreb, MTK Hungária, Ol ...

and with a team that also included

, Péter Palotás and Mihály Lantos, Zakariás helped MTK win two

Nemzeti Bajnokság I The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, "National Championship"), also known as NB I, is the top level of the Hungarian football league system. The league is officially named OTP Bank Liga after its title sponsor OTP Bank. UEFA currently ranks the league 28 ...

titles, a

Magyar Kupa The Hungarian Cup ( hu, Magyar Kupa) is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association, the ''Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség,'' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of the Hungarian ...

and a

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the successor states of the former Austria-Hunga ...

Hungarian International

Between 1949 and 1954, Zakariás won 35 caps for

. As one of the legendary ''Mighty Magyars'', he helped

become

Olympic Champions This article includes lists of all Olympic medalists since 1896, organized by each Olympic sport or discipline, and also by Olympiad. Medalist with most medals by sport Summer Olympic sports Winter Olympic sports A. Including military patrol ...

in 1952, Central European Champions in 1953 and defeated

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

twice. He then helped Hungary reach the 1954 World Cup final. During the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

finals he played in four of the five games Hungary played in. He allegedly broke a curfew before the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

, spending the previous night with a hotel maid. Zakariás never played for Hungary again.

Honours

Hungary *

**1952 * Central European Champions **1953 *

**''Runner-up'': 1954 MTK/Bástya/Vörös Lobogó * Hungarian Champions: 2 **1953, 1958 *

: 1 **1952 *

: 1 **1955

References

Sources

*''Behind The Curtain – Travels in Eastern European Football'': Jonathan Wilson (2006

External links

Hungary stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zakarias, Jozsef 1924 births 1971 deaths Footballers from Budapest Hungarian footballers MTK Budapest FC players Hungarian football managers Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Hungary Olympic gold medalists for Hungary 1954 FIFA World Cup players Hungary international footballers Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Guinea national football team managers Burials at Farkasréti Cemetery Association football midfielders Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Guinea Expatriate football managers in Guinea