István Kozma (born 3 December 1964) is a former Hungarian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

He began his career at Salgótarjáni TC in his native country of Hungary. Kozma then moved to

Újpest FC Újpest Football Club () is a Hungarian professional football club, based in Újpest, Budapest, that competes in Nemzeti Bajnokság I. Formed in 1885, Újpest reached the first division of the Hungarian League in 1905 and has been relegat ...

and then to French Ligue 1 champions

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

. In December 1989 he was signed by

Jim Leishman Jim Leishman MBE (born 15 November 1953) is a Scottish Labour Party politician and former professional footballer who is currently Provost of Fife and an honorary director of Scottish Championship side Dunfermline Athletic. Career Player ...

for Scottish team

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...

for £550,000 which is still the club's record transfer fee. At Dunfermline Kozma became a firm fan favourite playing 103 times and scoring 9 goals. In February 1992 he was a shock purchase for

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, with

Graeme Souness Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, and current TV pundit. A midfielder, Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s, player-manager of Ranger ...

signing the Hungarian for £300,000. Kozma never looked like breaking into the first team at Liverpool. In the 1991–92 season he made five

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

appearances and two in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

. In the 1992–93 season he played in the 1992 FA Charity Shield and then made one league appearance as a substitute and one further substitute appearance in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

, before being released in July 1993. His poor performance at Liverpool earned him in 2007 the dubious success of being rated by

Times Online ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...

as the fourth worst ever player to play in the Premiership.The 50 worst footballers
/ref> He then returned to Újpest FC. In 1995–96 he played for

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

where, after amazing performances, he led his team to the Double. The next season, he helped APOEL to win the Super Cup and the Cup again. He played 40 times for the Hungarian national side, scoring once.

Life after football

From season 2006–07, he was working as an assistant manager at

Vasas SC Vasas may refer to: * Vasas SC, Hungarian sports club *Győri Vasas, former name of Hungarian sports club Győri ETO (1950-65) *Mihály Vasas (born 1933), Hungarian footballer and manager *Zoltán Vasas Zoltán Vasas (born 5 November 1977) is ...

References

External links

Profile at dafc.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kozma, Istvan 1964 births Living people People from Pásztó Hungarian footballers Hungary international footballers FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Association football midfielders Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Liverpool F.C. players Újpest FC players Premier League players APOEL FC players Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Scotland Scottish Football League players Scottish Football League representative players English Football League players Cypriot First Division players Hungarian expatriates in Scotland Sportspeople from Nógrád County