István Tóth-Potya

István Tóth-Potya [ ˈiʃtvaːn ˈtoːt ˈpocɒ ] (born July 28, 1891 in Budapest , Austria-Hungary ; † February 6, 1945 ibid) was a Hungarian football player and coach .

Club career

István Tóth-Potya started at the age of 13 in the offspring of the top team at the time, Budapesti Torna Club , but moved to the lower class Nemzeti SC as early as 1906 , who in 1909 achieved promotion to the top division. Tóth was able to establish himself in the Nemzeti Bajnokság , also attended a technical college and switched to the Ferencvárosi Torna Club in 1912 . The two-legged striker, whose strengths included handling the ball and jumping ability, was able to win the championship title and the cup straight away. After victories in the two unofficial war championships in autumn 1914 and spring 1915, however, the MTK Budapest began to dominate for ten years , while the FTC was subscribed to second and third places and was only able to win the cup in 1922. Only in Tóth's last season before the end of his active career, which was also the last season before professionalism was introduced in Hungary, did he win another championship title in 1926.

National team

His first appearance in the national team took place in May 1909 in a 2-4 defeat by England . In his second appearance, a 6-0 win against Norway in the run-up to the 1912 Summer Olympics , he scored his first goal in the national dress. He was part of the Hungarian squad, but was not used during the tournament. Between 1912 and 1916 he was a member of the national team, after which his assignments became less frequent. He made his last game in May 1926 against Austria . He made a total of 19 missions and scored eight times in the goal.

Career as a coach

After the end of his active career, Tóth stayed with the FTC and became its first professional coach. Already in the first two seasons, a team made up of old stars like Imre Schlosser and Mihály Pataki and young players like Márton Bukovi and Vilmos Kohut achieved the double of championship and cup victory. In addition, with victories over the Beogradski SK and SK Admira Wien , they made it to the finals of the Mitropacup 1928 , where they met SK Rapid Wien . With a 7-1 win in the first leg, the Budapesters made the overall victory almost perfect, even a 3-5 defeat in Vienna couldn't change that.

In 1930 he left Hungary and took over the coaching position at US Triestina , with whom he managed to stay in Serie A and helped 16-year-old Gino Colaussi to make his debut. Then he replaced his compatriot Árpád Weisz at Inter Milan (then AS Ambrosiana ), where he had a team with Giuseppe Meazza , Luigi Allemandi and Attilio Demaría available. After a disappointing sixth place, he had to make way for his predecessor after just one season.

Tóth returned to Budapest and took over Újpesti FC , which he led to the championship title in 1933 with a team led by László Sternberg and Stefan Auer . In 1934 he returned to Triestina for two more seasons, where he achieved the best placement in the club's history with a sixth place. Back in Hungary he became the sporting director of the first division promoter Elektromos , with which not only was the league successful, but the team was able to establish itself in the top division in the long term. In 1943 Tóth took over the coaching position at Ferencváros again.

In addition to his coaching activity, Tóth was also involved in coach training, held courses and became chairman of the coaches association.

During the Second World War he was active in the anti-fascist resistance. In 1944 he was arrested, handed over to the Gestapo and murdered in February 1945.

successes

• 1 × Mitropacupieger: 1928 (as trainer)
• 5 × Hungarian champions: 1913, 1926 (as a player), 1927, 1928, 1933 (as a coach)
• 4 × Hungarian cup winners: 1913, 1922 (as a player), 1927, 1928 (as a coach)
• 19 international matches and 8 goals for the Hungarian national football team

Web links

• photo