 Gyula Zsengellér | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gyula Zsengellér | |||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1915-12-27)27 December 1915 | |||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Cegléd,Kingdom of Hungary,Austria-Hungary | |||||||||||||
| Date of death | 29 March 1999(1999-03-29) (aged 83) | |||||||||||||
| Place of death | Nicosia, Cyprus | |||||||||||||
| Height | 1.77 m (5 ft9+1⁄2 in) | |||||||||||||
| Position | Striker | |||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||
| 1935–1936 | Salgótarjáni TC | 24 | (19) | |||||||||||
| 1936–1947 | Újpest FC | 301 | (368) | |||||||||||
| 1947–1949 | A.S. Roma | 34 | (6) | |||||||||||
| 1949–1950 | AC Ancona | 30 | (18) | |||||||||||
| 1951–1953 | Deportivo Samarios | 37 | (23) | |||||||||||
| Total | 426 | (434) | ||||||||||||
| International career | ||||||||||||||
| 1936–1947 | Hungary | 39 | (32) | |||||||||||
| Managerial career | ||||||||||||||
| 1950 | Cosenza | |||||||||||||
| 1951–1953 | Deportivo Samarios (player-manager) | |||||||||||||
| 1953–1954 | Pezoporikos Larnaca | |||||||||||||
| 1955–1957 | Pezoporikos Larnaca | |||||||||||||
| 1957–1959 | Nea Salamis FC | |||||||||||||
| 1959–1960 | Cosenza | |||||||||||||
| 1960–1961 | Pezoporikos Larnaca | |||||||||||||
| 1961–1962 | Salernitana | |||||||||||||
| 1962–1964 | US Sarom Ravenna | |||||||||||||
| 1964–1965 | Apollon Kalamarias | |||||||||||||
| 1965–1966 | APOEL FC | |||||||||||||
| 1966–1968 | Pezoporikos Larnaca | |||||||||||||
| 1968–1969 | Niki Volos | |||||||||||||
| 1969–1970 | Anorthosis Famagusta | |||||||||||||
| 1970 | Pezoporikos Larnaca | |||||||||||||
| 1970–1971 | Cosenza (assistant) | |||||||||||||
| 1971 | Niki Volos | |||||||||||||
| 1972–1974 | Olympiacos Volos | |||||||||||||
| 1974–1976 | APOEL FC | |||||||||||||
| 1976–1979 | APOP Paphos | |||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | ||||||||||||||
Gyula Zsengellér (27 December 1915 – 29 March 1999) was a Hungarianfootballer who played as astriker. A historic player ofÚjpest FC, he scored 387 goals in the Hungarian league between 1935 and 1947, making him theleague's third-highest goalscorer of all-time. He was also a member of theHungary national team that reached thefinal of the1938 FIFA World Cup, being the tournament's second-highest scorer.
After finishing his playing career, he worked as a coach for several clubs in Italy and Cyprus, guidingPezoporikos Larnaca to a championship title andAPOEL FC to a cup.
He was a world-class striker. He was an outstanding player technically, tactically, in terms of game intelligence and goal-scoring ability. He was not a physically strong player, he avoided body-to-body play, but he always put his teammates in good positions. A two-footed player.
Born inCegléd on 27 December 1915, Zsengellér began his career atSalgótarjáni TC, before joiningÚjpest FC in 1936, with whom he played for 11 years, until 1947.[3][4] During his time there, he was the Hungarian league's top-scorer in five seasons (1938, 1939, 1943, 1944 and in the spring season of 1945),Europe's top goalscorer in 1939 and 1945 (56 and 36 goals, respectively),[3] and also the top scorer of theMitropa Cup in1939 with 9 goals,[5][6] including a brace in the first leg of thefinals againstFerencvárosi, helping his side to a 6–3 aggregate victory.[3] In total, he scored 368 goals in 302 league matches.[1][2]
In 1947, Zsengellér left both Újpest and the country, becoming the last player that theHungarian Football Federation allowed to sign a contract abroad, joining Italian sideA.S. Roma, where he stayed for two years.[3] In the 1949–50 season, he played forAncona, before finishing his career playing for ColombianDeportivo Samarios, where he worked as aplayer-coach between 1951 and 1953.[3] According toIFFHS, he is the fifth highest goalscorer in the history of top-tier national leagues with 415 such goals (386 in Hungary, 6 in Italy, and 23 in Colombia), only behindLionel Messi,Josef Bican,Ferenc Puskás, andCristiano Ronaldo.[7]
On 2 December 1936, the 20-year-old Zsengellér made his international debut for Hungary in afriendly againstEngland atArsenal Stadium inLondon, which ended in a 6–2 loss.[8] In his second appearance, on 11 April 1937, he scored ahat-trick in a1936–38 Central European Cup match againstSwitzerland inBasel.[8] The following year, on 25 March, he scored a 5-goal haul in a1938 World Cup qualifier againstGreece (11–1).[3][8][9] In total, he earned 39caps, scoring 33 goals, making him the eighth-highest goalscorer in the history of the Hungarian national team.[8]
After his retirement, Zsengellér started a long and successful managerial career, working mainly in Italy and Cyprus, winning theCypriot First Division withPezoporikos Larnaca in 1954 and theCypriot Cup withAPOEL FC in 1976.[1][2] In 1958, he was appointed as the manager of the Cypriot national team, a position he held for two years.[2]
Zsengellér died on 29 March 1999, at the age of 83. He was initially buried in Cyprus, where his grave stood until October 2013, when his family brought his remains to Hungary and reburied them in his hometown of Cegléd.[1][2][3] His son Zsolt was a sports journalist and former employee of Képes Sport.[3]
A Turkish newspaper described him as thePaganini of football.[1]
| Club performance | League | Cup | League Cup | Continental | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Hungary | League | Hungarian Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||||
| 1935–36 | Salgótarjáni BTC | National Championship I | 24 | 19 | ||||||||
| 1936–37 | Újpest Budapest | National Championship I | 24 | 35 | ||||||||
| 1937–38 | 25 | 31 | ||||||||||
| 1938–39 | 26 | 56 | ||||||||||
| 1939–40 | 12 | 11 | ||||||||||
| 1940–41 | 26 | 28 | ||||||||||
| 1941–42 | 28 | 27 | ||||||||||
| 1942–43 | 30 | 26 | ||||||||||
| 1943–44 | 29 | 33 | ||||||||||
| 1944 | 9 | 12 | ||||||||||
| 1945 | 21 | 36 | ||||||||||
| 1945–46 | 35 | 51 | ||||||||||
| 1946–47 | 29 | 18 | ||||||||||
| 1947–48 | 7 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Total | Hungary | 325 | 387 | |||||||||
| 1948–49 | AS Roma | Serie A | 28 | 5 | ||||||||
| 1949–50 | 6 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Total | Italy | 34 | 6 | |||||||||
| 1951 | Deportivo Samarios | Categoría Primera A | 19 | 13 | ||||||||
| 1952 | 18 | 10 | ||||||||||
| Total | Colombia | 37 | 23 | |||||||||
| Career total | 396 | 416 | ||||||||||
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 April 1937 | Stadion Rankhof,Basel, Switzerland |  Switzerland | 2–0 | 5–1 | 1936–38 Central European Cup |
| 2 | 3–1 | |||||
| 3 | 4–1 | |||||
| 4 | 19 September 1937 | Hungaria uti,Budapest, Hungary |  Czech Republic | 1–0 | 8–3 | |
| 5 | 16 January 1938 | Stade Municipal,Luxembourg City, Luxembourg |  Luxembourg | 4–0 | 6–0 | Friendly |
| 6 | 25 March 1938 | Hungária körúti stadion,Budapest, Hungary |  Greece | 1–0 | 11–1 | 1938 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 7 | 3–0 | |||||
| 8 | 4–0 | |||||
| 9 | 10–0 | |||||
| 10 | 11–0 | |||||
| 11 | 5 June 1938 | Vélodrome Municipal,Reims, France |  France | 4–0 | 6–0 | 1938 World Cup Round of 16 |
| 12 | 5–0 | |||||
| 13 | 12 June 1938 | Stade Victor Boucquey,Lille, France | Switzerland | 2–0 | 2–0 | 1938 World Cup quarter-finals |
| 14 | 16 June 1938 | Parc des Princes,Paris, France |  Sweden | 3–1 | 5–1 | 1938 World Cup Semi-finals |
| 15 | 5–1 | |||||
| 16 | 26 February 1939 | Rotterdam, Netherlands |  Netherlands | 1–0 | 2–3 | Friendly |
| 17 | 19 March 1939 | Cork, Ireland |  Ireland | 1–1 | 2–2 | |
| 18 | 27 August 1939 | Polish Army Stadium,Warsaw, Poland |  Poland | 1–0 | 2–4 | |
| 19 | 24 September 1939 | Üllői úti stadion,Budapest, Hungary |  Germany | 2–0 | 5–1 | |
| 20 | 3–1 | |||||
| 21 | 4–1 | |||||
| 22 | 3 May 1942 | 2–1 | 5–3 | |||
| 23 | 16 May 1943 | Geneva, Hungary | Switzerland | 2–1 | 3–1 | |
| 24 | 6 June 1943 | Yunak Stadium,Sofia, Bulgaria |  Bulgaria | 1–0 | 4–2 | |
| 25 | 2–0 | |||||
| 26 | 3–0 | |||||
| 27 | 4–1 | |||||
| 28 | 12 September 1943 | Solna, Sweden | Sweden | 1–1 | 3–2 | |
| 29 | 19 August 1945 | Üllői úti stadion,Budapest, Hungary |  Austria | 2–0 | 2–0 | |
| 30 | 20 August 1945 | 3–0 | 5–2 | |||
| 31 | 30 September 1945 |  Romania | 3–1 | 7–2 | ||
| 32 | 14 April 1946 | Vienna, Austria | Austria | 2–1 | 2–3 |
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