Ladislau Ludovic Bonyhádi (; born 25 March 1923 - deceased 13 June 1997 in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, United States) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n football player of Hungarian ethnicity. During his spell with ITA Arad he was the top-goalscorer of

Divizia A Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

twice, in the 1947–48 season he scored 49 goals, which is a record for the Romanian first league.

Club career

Ladislau Bonyhádi was born on 25 March 1923 in

Bonyhád Bonyhád () is a town in Tolna County in Southwestern Hungary. History The area around Bonyhád has been inhabited since ancient times, primarily by Celts. The modern town can trace its history back to 14th century. The town was briefly uninhab ...

, Hungary, starting to play junior level football at age 11 in 1934 at Szegedi, four years later starting to play for the team's senior squad. In 1941 he went to play for Kolozsvári AC, his first

Nemzeti Bajnokság I The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, ), also known as NB I or Fizz Liga after its title sponsor, OTP Bank's webshop subsidiary, is a professional association football league in Hungary and the highest level of the Hungarian football league system. Twelve ...

match for them being on 31 August when under the guidance of coach Béla Kovács he scored a brace in a 3–0 win over Diósgyőri MÁVAG. Until the end of the season Bonyhádi scored 22 goals, including four more doubles against

Csepel Csepel (), officially known as the 21st District of Budapest ( Hungarian: ''Budapest XXI. kerülete'') is a district and a neighbourhood in Budapest, Hungary. Csepel officially became part of Budapest on 1 January 1950. Name The village and ...

Nagyváradi AC Club Atletic Oradea (Nagyváradi Atlétikai Club) (), commonly known as CA Oradea (Nagyváradi AC), or simply as CAO (NAC), is a Romanian Association football, football club based in Oradea, Bihor County, which competes in the Liga IV. The team ...

, Kispest AC and

Gamma Gamma (; uppercase , lowercase ; ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter normally repr ...

, also a hat-trick in a 3–3 with Elektromos. In the following season he scored 11 goals, including two doubles in two wins with

Salgótarjáni BTC Salgótarjáni Barátok Torna Club is a Hungarian football club from the town of Salgótarján, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság III – Northeast, the third tier of Hungarian football. History Salgótarjáni Barátok Torna Club debute ...

and Újvidéki AC, then in his last season at the club, Bonyhádi scored six league goals, including a brace in a 4–0 win over Elektromos, also together with coach Zoltán Opata he reached the

1943–44 Magyar Kupa The 1943–44 Magyar Kupa (English: ''Hungarian Cup'') was the 21st season of Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukrai ...

final which was lost with 5–3 on aggregate in front of

Ferencváros Ferencváros (, ) is the 9th district of Budapest (), Hungary. Name The southern suburb of Pest was named after King Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Francis I on 4 December 1792 when he was crowned king of Hungary. History The developmen ...

where he scored all three goals of his team. He has a total of 65 appearances with 39 goals scored in the Hungarian league. In 1946 he went to play for ITA Arad, making his

debut on 25 August under the guidance of his former coach from Kolozsvári, Zoltán Opata in a 5–1 away win with Libertatea Oradea, by the end of the season scoring 26 goals in 23 matches, being the league's top-goalscorer as the team won the first title in its history. In the following season he helped ''The Old Lady'' win The Double, being the league's top-goalscorer once again with 49 goals scored in the 29 games he was used by coach Petre Steinbach, also playing all the minutes under the guidance of coach Gusztáv Juhász in the 3–2 victory against CFR Timișoara from the

1948 Cupa României final The 1948 Cupa României Final was the 11th final of Romania's most prestigious Association football, football cup competition. It was disputed between FC UTA Arad, ITA Arad and FC CFR Timișoara, CFR Timișoara, and was won by Arad after a game ...

. With those 49 goals scored, Bonyhádi holds the record of most goals scored in a single Divizia A season by a player, also in all the European championships in that season, only

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

was above him, as he scored 50 goals in the Hungarian league. In the 1948–49 season he made six appearances in which he scored five goals for UTA, the last two being in a 3–3 with CSCA București, having a total of 54 games in the Romanian league with 80 goals scored in the competition. In 1948, Bonyhádi's father, Geza asked him to come to

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

because he was very ill and wanted to see his son once more. As Romania's communist regime did not allow anyone to cross the border, Bonyhádi left the country illegally but could not find a way to return as the borders were better guarded and if caught he would have risked jail time. Because of this he had to stay in Hungary, losing the connection with his wife, also because of his "runaway" status he could not find a team to play for, thus retiring at age 24 but he played

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

for a while.

International career

Although born in Hungary, Ladislau Bonyhádi played three games for Romania's national team, making his debut on 26 October 1947 when coach Ferenc Rónay sent him on the field at half-time in order to replace Gheorghe Váczi in a friendly which ended 0–0 with

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. His following games were losses at the 1948 Balkan Cup, a 0–1 with

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

and a 0–9 with

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Style of play

Bonyhádi was described in a press report from July 1946 as a strong player who could pass the opponents defense with his physical force, being known to shoot equally powerfully with both legs. He was also known for his speed, at a point reaching 11.2 seconds in a 100 meters sprint, in one year winning a running competition in Arad.

Death

Bonyhádi managed to flee from Hungary's communist regime during the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

, settling in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. He died on 13 June 1997 in

. A book about Ladislau Bonyhádi was written by Radu Romănescu called ''Ludovic Bonyhádi, marele golgeter al Aradului. Povestea neștiută'' ''(Ludovic Bonyhádi, the great goalscorer of Arad. The unknown story)'', which was released on 15 April 2016.

Notes

Honours

Club

Kolozsvári AC *

Magyar Kupa The Hungarian Cup (, ), officially known as MOL Magyar Kupa for sponsorship reasons, is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association'','' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of ...

runner-up: 1943–44 UTA Arad *

: 1946–47, 1947–48 *

Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. It is the Romania ...

: 1947–48

Individual

top scorer: 1946–47, 1947–48 * Most goals scored in a single

season: 49 ( 1947–48)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonyhadi, Ludovic 1923 births 1997 deaths People from Bonyhád Hungarian men's footballers Romanian men's footballers Romania men's international footballers FC UTA Arad players Szegedi AK players Romanian sportspeople of Hungarian descent Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Liga I players Romanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Men's association football forwards Footballers from Tolna County 20th-century Romanian sportsmen 20th-century Hungarian sportsmen