József Zakariás (25 March 1924 – 22 November 1971) was a 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 lea ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. During the 1950s, he was a member of the legendary

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much 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 south, Croatia and ...

team known as the ''Mighty Magyars''. Other members of the team included

Nándor Hidegkuti Nándor Hidegkuti (3 March 1922 – 14 February 2002) was a Hungarian football player and manager. He played as a forward or attacking midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career at MTK Hungária FC. During the 1950s he was also a ...

Ferenc Puskás Ferenc Puskás (, ; né Purczeld; 1 April 1927 – 17 November 2006) was a Hungarian footballer and manager, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the sport's first international superstar. A forward and an attacking ...

Zoltán Czibor Zoltán Czibor (23 August 1929 – 1 September 1997) was a Hungarian footballer who played for several Hungarian clubs, including Ferencváros and Budapest Honvéd, and the Hungary national team before joining CF Barcelona. Czibor played as ...

Sándor Kocsis Sándor Péter Kocsis (; ; 21 September 1929 – 22 July 1979) was a Hungarian Association football, footballer who played for Ferencvárosi TC, Budapest Honvéd FC, Budapest Honvéd, SC Young Fellows Juventus, Young Fellows Zürich, FC Barcelo ...

and

József Bozsik József Bozsik (; 28 November 1925 – 31 May 1978) was a Hungarian footballer who played as a central midfielder. He spent his entire club career at his hometown club, Budapest Honvéd. Bozsik was a key member of the legendary Golden Team ...

MTK Hungária FC

Zakariás was born and died in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

and spent the peak of his career at

MTK Hungária FC Magyar Testgyakorlók Köre Budapest Futball Club or shortly MTK is a professional football club based in Józsefváros, Budapest, Hungary. The club currently plays in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I. The club's colours are blue and white. As one of t ...

. However while he was with the club they were known as ''Bástya SE'' and then ''Vörös Lobogó SE''. Under coach

Márton Bukovi Márton Bukovi (10 December 1903 – 2 February 1985) was a Hungarian association football player and manager. After playing for Ferencvárosi TC, FC Sète and Hungary, he became a coach, most notably with Građanski Zagreb, MTK Hungária a ...

and with a team that also included

Péter Palotás Péter Palotás (27 June 1929 – 17 May 1967), born as Péter Poteleczky, was a Hungarian footballer who played as a forward for MTK Budapest FC and Hungary. During the 1950s he was a fringe member of the team known as the ''Mighty Magyars'' ...

and Mihály Lantos, Zakariás helped MTK win two

Nemzeti Bajnokság I The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, ), also known as NB I or Fizz Liga after its title sponsor, OTP Bank's webshop subsidiary, is a professional association football league in Hungary and the highest level of the Hungarian football league system. Twelve ...

titles, a

Magyar Kupa The Hungarian Cup (, ), officially known as MOL Magyar Kupa for sponsorship reasons, is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association'','' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of ...

and a

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called Coupe de l'Europe Centrale, Mitteleuropäischer Pokal or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European association football, football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the suc ...

Hungarian International

Between 1949 and 1954, Zakariás won 35 caps for

. As one of the legendary ''Mighty Magyars'', he helped

become

Olympic Champions This article includes lists of all Olympic medalists since 1896, organized by each Olympic sport or discipline, and also by Olympiad. Medalist with most medals by sport Summer Olympic sports Sports that will appear in the 2028 Summer Olympics ar ...

in 1952, Central European Champions in 1953 and defeated

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

twice. He then helped Hungary reach the 1954 World Cup final. During the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

finals he played in four of the five games Hungary played in. He allegedly broke a curfew before the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, spending the previous night with a hotel maid. Zakariás never played for Hungary again.

Honours

Hungary *

**1952 * Central European Champions **1953 *

**''Runner-up'': 1954 MTK/Bástya/Vörös Lobogó * Hungarian Champions: 2 **1953, 1958 *

: 1 **1952 *

: 1 **1955

References

Sources

*''Behind The Curtain – Travels in Eastern European Football'': Jonathan Wilson (2006

External links

Hungary stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zakarias, Jozsef 1924 births 1971 deaths Footballers from Budapest Hungarian men's footballers MTK Budapest FC players Hungarian football managers Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Hungary Olympic gold medalists for Hungary 1954 FIFA World Cup players Hungary men's international footballers Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Guinea national football team managers Burials at Farkasréti Cemetery Men's association football midfielders Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Guinea Expatriate football managers in Guinea 20th-century Hungarian sportsmen