Kálmán Mészöly, a 61-time national football player, has died at the age of 81, the bereaved family informed the National Sport.  

The paper recalled that the Hungarian football legend participated in two World Cups, in 1962 and 1966. Later, in 1982, he led the Hungarian team as national team captain. On August 20, 2011, he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.

At the 2018 Sportsman of the Year Gala of the Hungarian Sports Journalists Association, he was honored with the MLSZ Életmű award, which he greeted with tears, and although he called himself a "weak Pali", on the field he was anything but a weak Pali, the article states.

Two weeks ago, from a source close to the family, the sports editorial team learned that the 61-time international soccer player and former national team captain, who was previously hospitalized due to pneumonia, circulatory disorders and infection, had contracted the coronavirus, which was also reported by Magyar Hírlap .

In his portrait, MTI writes that Kálmán Mészöly was born on July 16, 1941 in Budapest. At the age of eleven, the III. He kicked the ball in the district TTVE team, and was certified by Vasas SC in 1959. He remained loyal to the Angyalföld club until his retirement in 1972, playing in 279 league matches as a key member of the team. One of the best Hungarian centre-backs of all time, he scored 32 goals, was a great header and usually took penalties. In addition to four league titles (1961, 1962, 1965, 1966), he won three Central European Cups (1962, 1965, 1970) with Vasas, and in 1962 he was chosen as the footballer of the year in his country.

He became a member of the national team in 1961, and until 1971 he was able to wear the crested shirt 61 times, which is still the record holder among Vasas players. In the national eleven, he scored six goals, four of them from penalty kicks, and was a member of the European team three times. The defender, nicknamed Szőke Szikla, participated in two World Cups, the national team reached the quarter-finals in 1962 in Chile and in 1966 in England.

During the group matches in England, they created a world sensation and defeated the two-time world champions Brazil 3-1. The third goal was scored by Mészöly from the penalty spot (according to radio reporter György Szepesi, no one from the team dared to look before the shot), and he finished the match with his arm tied due to a dislocated shoulder.

In 1964, he participated in the second European Championship in the history of football (officially the European Cup of Nations) in Spain, where they beat Denmark 3-1 in the bronze match. In 1969, he was also there in Marseille, losing 4-1 against the Czechoslovaks in the qualifying round, after which the national team did not make it to the World Cup for the first time. After the "Mohács of Hungarian football", the bitter words came from Mészöly's mouth: "our time is up..." Later he said: he meant that the approach, the management of the MLSZ, had to be changed, but the sports management took it literally and the players over thirty described it as "old".

After his retirement, from 1972 he became the head coach of the second division Ganz-Mávag SE and then of Budafoki MTE. From 1976 he worked in Békéscsaba, between 1978-80 and 1983-84 he was the head coach of Vasas SC, with the team he won a bronze medal in the championship in 1980. He was the captain of the Turkish national team in 1985, the head coach of Fenerbahce in 1985-86, and Altay Izmir in 1986.

In 1988, when he was working as a consultant for Zalaegerszeg TE, he was banned from football for six months after a league match on suspicion of furball. After that, he was the head coach of Vasas again for one season. In the 1991-92 season, he coached Saudi Arabia's al-Ittihád, and again in 1993-94, the Vasas team.

As national team captain, he sat on the bench in a total of 61 matches. The first time was between 1980-1983, when he led the national team to the 1982 World Cup in Spain in first place, even though the group included such strong rivals as England and Romania. In its first match at the World Cup, the national team won 10-1 against Salvador, to date this is the biggest success rate in the history of the world championships, together with the 9-0 triumph between Hungary and South Korea in 1954, and the only time when a double-digit score was achieved.

However, a defeat by Argentina and a draw with Belgium followed, and the tournament was over for the Hungarians. Kálmán Mészöly became national team captain for the second time in 1990-91, he led the national team for 18 matches, but failed to qualify for the European Championship in Sweden. In 1994, he assumed the position of captain for the third time, but after the team did not make it to the European Championship in England, he resigned in 1996.

From 1998, he was the social president of the Hungarian Professional Football League, then its professional director, until 2007 he was the presidential adviser of the Hungarian Football Association (MLSZ), in 2011 he returned to Vasas as a club adviser. As a consultant, he took a role in the campaign for the 2012 European Championship.

Kálmán Mészöly was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic in 2011, and received the Pro Urbe award in the same year. In 2013, Vasas awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2016 he received the Ferenc Csík Award, and in January 2018 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Hungarian Football Association. His biographical novel A Szőke Szikla, written together with Gábor Sinkovics, was published in 2014.

Source: Magyar Hírlap

Image: NemzetiSport.hu