Zoltán Tóth (born 29 December 1955 in

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 ...

) is a Hungarian former

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 played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

and currently works as a coach. He played for

Újpest FC Újpest Football Club () is a Hungary, Hungarian professional association football, football club based in Újpest, Budapest, that competes in Nemzeti Bajnokság I. Formed in 1885, Újpest reached the first division of the Hungarian League in ...

from 1975 to 1979 and once played for the Hungary national team in 1979.

Life in Hungary

Tóth was born in Hungary to György Tóth, who played fifteen times with the

Hungary national football team The Hungary national football team (, ) represents Hungary in men's international Association football, football, and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation. The team has made nine appearances in the FIFA World Cup, and five in the ...

between 1939 and 1948. Tóth's talent was apparent early and he eventually also saw time with the Hungary himself. On a tour with the team in Cadiz, Spain in 1979, Tóth defected and moved to 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 also played on the Hungarian Olympic team.

Professional

In addition to his national team time, Tóth spent four seasons with Hungarian First Division club

. As one of the top Hungarian clubs, Újpest regularly played in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

and

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

. They twice won the Hungarian national championship during Tóth's time, 1977–78 and 1978–79. In 1979, Tóth signed with the

New York Arrows The New York Arrows were an indoor soccer team that played in the original Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992), Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) from 1978 to 1984. They were the MISL's first dynasty, winning the first four championships. H ...

of Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) for the 1980–81 season and got his start when Arrows' goalkeeper Shep Messing was injured. He was the 1982-1983 MISL Goalkeeper of the Year. Won 14 lost 2 in 1980–81 and won 15 lost 2 in 1981–82 season. Best winning percentage of all time. In 1984, he transferred to the San Diego Sockers of the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

. He kept 7 clean sheets out of 10 games. The Sockers then moved to the MISL. Toth remained with the Sockers through the 1989–90 season. He was selected as the MISL Goalkeeper of the Decade for the 1980s. He holds the league record for wins and

goals against average Goals against average (GAA), also known as average goals against (AGA), is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on spo ...

. He then played for the

St. Louis Storm The St. Louis Storm was a soccer team based out of St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis that played in the Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992), Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). They played from 1989 to 1992. Their home arena was the St. Louis ...

from 1990 to 1992.

Coaching career

*1980–1982 – Geza Henni Goalkeeper School Rhode Island University Goalkeeper coach Professional goalkeeper instructions *1984–1990 – San Diego Sockers Youth Soccer Programs San Diego, CA. *1990–1992 – American All-Stars Co., San Diego, CA. Youth Sports Athletic Director Responsible for team clinics, goalkeeper training *1992–1993 – Full-time professional coach. San Diego, California San Dieguito Surf U-16 boys' and U-9 girls' head coach Coached teams with success, winning Presidio Cup and North Huntington Beach tournament. *1993–1996 – coach of the Encinitas Express U-11 boys' teams *1997–2000 – coach of the Fallbrook Fury Soccer Club U-14 boys. Advise for Fallbrook's AAA U-10 boys' team. *2000 – SWSC Bu/19 team *2002–2007 – Goalkeeper coach Vista Soccer Club *2002–2007 – Goalkeeper coach TVSA Temecula Murrieta Soccer Club *2005–2007 – Goalkeeper coach Fallbrook Fury

Awards and honors

In March 2013, Tóth was one of six men named to the 2013 class of the Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame. The other inductees are

Gordon Jago Gordon Harold Jago (born 22 October 1932) is an English former football player and manager, and the former director of the Dr. Pepper Dallas Cup international youth tournament. Playing career Born in Poplar, London, Jago began his professiona ...

Preki Predrag Radosavljević ( sr-Cyrl, Предраг Радосављевић; born June 24, 1963), better known by the nickname Preki (), is a former soccer player and coach. He is currently an assistant coach with Seattle Sounders FC in Major Le ...

, Kai Haaskivi, Brian Quinn, and

Mike Stankovic Mike Stankovic (born November 11, 1956) is a retired Serbian Americans, Serbian-American association football, soccer defender (association football), defender who played professionally in the North American Soccer League (1968–1984), North Ame ...

Personal

His son,

Christopher Christopher is the English language, English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek language, Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or ''Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Jesus ...

, is the current

for the Tacoma Stars and played for the United States national beach soccer team at the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...

and at the

2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup The 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup was the 10th FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, the premier international beach soccer championship contested by men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. Overall, this was the 20th edition of a List ...

in Paraguay.FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Tahiti 2013
/ref> Toth, has three MASL Goalkeeper of the Year Awards. His father, György Tóth, represented

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 ...

in the 1930s and 1940s and coached

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

in the 1970s.

References

External links

Toth home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toth, Zoltan 1955 births Living people Footballers from Budapest Hungarian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Hungary men's international footballers Újpest FC players Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players New York Arrows players San Diego Sockers (1978–1996) players San Diego Sockers (1978–1996) indoor players St. Louis Storm players Hungarian defectors Hungarian emigrants to the United States Hungarian expatriate men's footballers Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States 20th-century Hungarian sportsmen