István Zsolt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

István Zsolt (born June 21, 1921 in Budapest ; † May 7, 1991 , ibid) was a Hungarian football referee .

The Hungarian referee Zsolt was one of the world's best football referees for over 15 years. He took part in three soccer world championships. At the Football World Cup in Switzerland in 1954 , he led the quarter-final match between Germany and Yugoslavia .

Far more famous for German fans was the 1958 soccer World Cup in Sweden when Zsolt whistled the semi-final between Germany and Sweden . With a score of 1: 1, he sent the Düsseldorf Erich Juskowiak off the pitch for a revenge foul after Kurt Hamrin had kicked him. Hamrin was not sent off. After Fritz Walter was badly fouled a little later and he injured his ankle, which in turn had no consequences, the German team practically only played with nine players (at that time, substitutions were not allowed and Walter could hardly participate in the action) and lost the game with 1: 3. In Germany, even before the game, there was criticism that FIFA had put a Hungarian referee on the game - four years earlier Germany had won the final of the 1954 World Cup against Hungary . After this game, Zsolt did not lead an international match for seven years.

István Zsolt whistled his last World Cup game at the 1966 World Cup in England . It was the opening game between hosts England and two-time world champions Uruguay . The last big appearance of the Hungarian referee was the game for third place in the European Football Championship in 1968 between England and the Soviet Union .

1966 Zsolt whistled the final first leg of the UEFA Cup predecessor Inter-Cities Fairs Cup between Spanish clubs Real Zaragoza and Barcelona CF . István Zsolt also directed a total of five games at the 1952, 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympics, which is a record.