Imre Schlosser (also known as Imre Schlosser-Lakatos; 11 October 1889 – 18 July 1959) was a Hungarian footballer of Danube Swabian ancestry who played as a forward. He still holds the record as the highest goalscorer in the history of the Hungarian National Championship.

Club career

The son of János Schlosser and Maria Kettner, he had two brothers, (John and Joseph), who were members of the

Ferencvárosi TC Ferencvárosi Torna Club, known as Ferencváros (), Fradi, or simply FTC, is a professional football club based in Ferencváros, Budapest, Hungary, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the top flight of Hungarian football. Ferencváros ...

, and thus, he followed their footsteps and made his debut at the age of 17, on 25 February 1906, against the Postás ellen (0-1), but his game was not yet appropriate, so he returned to the second team to strengthen for 3 months. He was on the first team again in the fall and this time he showed the potential of his talent, so he soon became a regular member of the team. Schlosser played eight seasons in green and white (1906-1915), of which he was champion six times and the top goal scorer of the league six times in a row, scoring a total of 258 league goals in 155 league matches. He also won one

Hungarian Cup The Hungarian Cup ( hu, Magyar Kupa) is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association, the ''Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség,'' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of the Hungarian ...

in 1912-13, in which he scored the winning goal in the final. Remarkably, he also topped the European top scoring list four times in a row, in the 1910-11(42), 1911-12(40) and 1912-13(42) and 1913-14(36) seasons, making him the first-ever player to be Europe's top scorer four times, a record that was later equalled only by the great

Josef Bican Josef "Pepi" Bican (25 September 1913 – 12 December 2001) was an Austrian-Czech professional footballer who played as a striker. He is the second-most prolific goalscorer in official matches in recorded history according to Rec.Sport.Soccer ...

and

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the ...

. After an argument with the FTC management team, he signed with the club's biggest rival MTK, and with them he was the champion of Hungary a further 6 times. He then spent a season at

Wiener AC Wiener Athletiksport Club, also known as Wiener AC or WAC, is an Austrian sports club in Vienna. It is particularly noted for its hockey team, which was established in 1900. Its football team won the Austrian Championships and was Runner-up in ...

in Austria before returning to Ferencvárosi, to help them to a double, winning both the league and cup. In his club career, Schlosser reportedly scored 417 league goals, a number believed to be the sixth highest of all-time in European top leagues. He managed

IFK Norrköping Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Norrköping, more commonly known as IFK Norrköping or simply Norrköping, is a Swedish professional football club based in Norrköping. The club is affiliated to Östergötlands Fotbollförbund and play thei ...

International career

Schlosser made his debut for

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

on 7 October 1906, aged 16 years and 361 days, in a 4–4 draw with Bohemia. In a national team career that would last more than 20 years, Schlosser played 68 times for Hungary (the team won 70% of the games in which they fielded Schlosser), and scored 59 goals, a ratio of 0.87 goals per match. The first of which came on 4 November 1906, aged 17 years and 24 days, in a 3–1 win over

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. He scored 5 hat-tricks for Hungary against the likes of Austria,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, Switzerland,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, the most notable of which being the one against Germany, because it handed his nation a 3–1 win in the 1912 Summer Olympics – Consolation tournament semi-finals, and Hungary went on to beat Austria in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

, where Schlosser scored the opening goal in a 3–0 win. Schlosser was the first footballer to score 50 international goals, achieving the feat when he scored a brace (two goals) in a 6–2 victory against

on 3 June 1917.

International

Sources:

Honours

Ferencvárosi TC *

Hungarian League Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the assignm ...

1906–07 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

, 1908–09, 1909–10, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1912–13, 1926–27 *

: 1912–13, 1926–27 MTK Hungária FC *

: 1916–17, 1917–18, 1918–19, 1919–20, 1920–21, 1921–22 * Hungarian Top Scorer: 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1917 * European Top Scorer: 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlosser, Imre 1889 births 1959 deaths Danube-Swabian people Hungarian people of German descent Hungarian footballers Hungarian expatriate football managers MTK Budapest FC players Ferencvárosi TC footballers Hungary international footballers Hungarian football managers IFK Norrköping managers Wisła Kraków managers Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate football managers in Sweden Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate football managers in Poland Association football forwards Olympic footballers of Hungary Footballers at the 1912 Summer Olympics Wiener AC players Hungarian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Austria Expatriate football managers in Austria Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Footballers from Budapest

Club career

International career

International

Honours

See also

References