Péter Palotás

Péter Palotás
Personnel
birthday	June 27, 1929
place of birth	Budapest ,  Hungary
date of death	May 17, 1967
Place of death	Budapest ,  Hungary
position	attack
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1950-1959	MTK Budapest	231 (156)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1950-1956	Hungary	24 0(18)
1 Only league games are given.

Péter Palotás (born June 27, 1929 in Budapest , † May 17, 1967 there ) was a Hungarian football player . He completed 24 international matches for Hungary and took part in the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland with the national team of his home country .

Career

Péter Palotás began his career in 1950 at the Budapest Textiles SE association , today's MTK Budapest . During his time at MTK, the club changed names four times and was also called Bástya SE and Vörös Lobogó SE before it adopted its current name in 1957. With MTK Budapest, the striker won the Hungarian championship three times in nine years (1950/51, 1952/53 and 1957/58). At his club, Palotás played with some of the great Hungarian footballers of the time, such as Nándor Hidegkuti , Mihály Lantos and József Zakariás . Coach Márton Bukovi's team was also very successful in the European Cup . In 1955, MTK won the Mitropa Cup . At this tournament, Péter Palotás was the first player to have a hat trick in a European Cup game, in a 6-3 win against RSC Anderlecht in the Népstadion in Budapest. In the second round match against Stade Reims he scored another two goals, so that he was the top scorer with six goals at the end of the tournament.

In the Hungarian national football team , Péter Palotás completed a total of 24 games from 1950 to 1959. Together with stars like Ferenc Puskás , Sándor Kocsis and Zoltán Czibor , Palotás won the gold medal at the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952 after beating Yugoslavia 2-0 in the final . He scored three goals during the tournament. Two years later, the Magyars traveled to Switzerland as a huge favorite for the World Cup . At this World Cup, Palotás completed two games for his team in which he scored two goals. He scored both in a 9-0 win against South Korea in the preliminary round . Palotás saw his second appearance in the semi-final game against Uruguay , where Hungary secured a place in the final with a 4-2 after extra time. There, however, the team lost completely surprisingly against the Federal Republic of Germany , which was able to celebrate its miracle of Bern . Two years later, Péter Palotás ended his national team career after 24 appearances in which he scored 18 goals.

In 1959, Péter Palotás had to end his career unexpectedly after suffering a heart attack during a game and collapsing, so that he could no longer play competitive sports. Eight years later, on May 17, 1967, Palotás died of heart failure at the age of only 37 .

Web links

• Information about the player
• Péter Palotás in the database of FIFA (English)