Yozhef Yozhefovich Sabo (; ; born 29 February 1940) is a Ukrainian former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager.

Club career

Sabo began to play in 1954 for a team of Uzhhorod bread factory and his first coach was Zoltan Gyorfi (). Later until August 1957 he played as a forward for Khimik Kalush in competitions among KFK of the Ukrainian SSR. From September 1957 to May 1959 Sabo played in Class B (second tier) for Spartak Uzhhorod. Sabo made his name as a player at

Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society ...

, appearing at the club from June 1959 to 1969. A four-time

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (), served as the top division (tier) of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The league's name was a conditional designation used for brevity since being completely owned and g ...

champion, Sabo appeared in 317 games in the competition, scoring 51 goals. His first game he played in a friendly against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

on 1 June 1959. In July 1963 Sabo was disqualified for a year for a rough play, but in February 1964 it was changed to a conditional disqualification. Also in 1968 he was disqualified again for refusing to play for the Soviet national team. Sabo was a member of Dynamo Kyiv when the club in 1961 for the first time gained the Soviet title, breaking the Muscovite spell. He arrived along with two other Uzhhorod players Andriy Havasi and Vasyl Turianchyk.

International career

Aside from being named one of the 33 best players in the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

for five years, Sabo capped 76 times for the USSR national side, scoring 16 goals. He played in 41 official matches and 35 friendlies. Sabo made his international debut in an

away game A road game or away game is a sports game where the specified team is not the host and must travel to another venue. Most professional teams represent cities or towns and amateur sports teams often represent academic institutions. Each team h ...

against

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

on 3 October 1965. While his official first appearance for the Soviet team was in 1965, Sabo was on the 1962 Soviet team roster for the

1962 FIFA World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the 7th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place between ...

and is now the last surviving member in that roster.

Coaching career

However, Sabo became most famous for his coaching, coaching various sides in the late 70s (such as

Zorya Luhansk FC Zorya Luhansk ( ) is a Ukrainian football team. Zorya Luhansk was based in the city of Luhansk, Ukraine. However, due to the Russo-Ukrainian War, the team currently plays its games at Slavutych-Arena in Zaporizhzhia. The modern club as a ...

in 1977 and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in 1978–1979), he has coached Dynamo Kyiv numerous times (from 1993 to 1997 and 2004–2005, with breaks in between). He is also arguably the second-most successful coach of the Ukraine national team, compiling 16 wins and 12 draws in 34 matches as coach of the side in 1994 and 1996–1999. On 20 September 2007 he was appointed as

's manager after Anatoliy Demyanenko resigned. However, Sabo resigned in early November that year due to personal health problems. He left Dynamo Kyiv by the end of 2007 and has no longer been involved with the club since that time.

Personal life

Sabo was born on a

leap year A leap year (also known as an intercalary year or bissextile year) is a calendar year that contains an additional day (or, in the case of a lunisolar calendar, a month) compared to a common year. The 366th day (or 13th month) is added to keep t ...

on 29 February. He is of Hungarian background. He is baptized as a

Greek-Catholic Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches that use the Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite: ** The Albanian Greek Catholic Church ** The Belarusian Gr ...

. Sabo has his house near Verecke Pass (

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains ...

) where he lives with his wife.Under high voltage, the most noted Hungarian football coach
Index.hu. 17 May 2005 In a 2005 interview, he also said that always wanted to coach the Hungary national team, but the

Hungarian Football Federation The Hungarian Football Federation (HFF) (, ) is the governing body of football and futsal in Hungary. It organizes the Hungarian league and the Hungary national team. The MLSZ is responsible for the Hungarian football league system, the men's a ...

leaders never gave him a concrete offer. At night from 2 onto 3 October 2007 Sabo had a heart attack due to which he was immediately taken to hospital. Doctors managed to save him, but he was prohibited to work due to a weak heart.Greetings from the Kiev Football Federation
Kiev Football Federation. In a 2015 interview, Sabo stated that the away game against Benfica in the

1991–92 European Cup The 1991–92 European Cup was the 37th season of the European Cup football club tournament. It was the first European Cup to have a group stage, from which the winning clubs progressed to the final. 1991–92 was the tournament's last edition b ...

that Dynamo lost 5–0 was fixed. Verbytsky, I.
Yozhef Sabo: In Moscow I was constantly called fascist
'. UA-Football. 4 March 2015. He also mentioned that in Moscow he was called fascist, because they knew that his father served in the

Royal Hungarian Army The Royal Hungarian Army (, ) was the name given to the land forces of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946), Kingdom of Hungary in the period from 1922 to 1945. Its name was inherited from the Royal Hungarian Honvéd which went under the same Hu ...

during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and later was exiled to Siberia. Sabo later started to learn Russian language after arriving to Kyiv and with a help of a tutor. Sabo was offered to join Komsomol and Communist Party but declined to explain that he could not be communist and stay religious. After arriving in Kyiv he continued to attend an underground Greek-Catholic service that was taken place in Sviatoshyn. Sabo said that he became the only Ukrainian who received the medal from the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 to 30 July 1966. England defeated West Germany 4–2 in the 1966 FI ...

, while at the same time

Valeriy Porkujan Valeriy Semenovych Porkuyan (, born 4 October 1944 in Kirovohrad, Ukrainian SSR, now Ukraine) is a former Ukraine, Ukrainian football (soccer), footballer of Armenian descent who played as a Forward (association football), forward for several ...

who also played at the Mundial was left without it. When the Soviets beat Hungary in the quarterfinals, Sabo was forced to hear all kinds of sentiments from his former compatriots. Sabo also explained that the reason why he refused to travel to Hungary with the Soviet Union national team for the quarter-final game was that he tried to finish his journalist degree in

Kyiv University The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

. The Soviet team then qualified without Sabo, but he was disqualified. In 1970 after a short stint in Luhansk, Sabo for a couple of months was working as a sports correspondent of Ukrainian newspaper "Pravda Ukrainy". In 1960 when Dynamo was playing an away friendly against

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional association foo ...

, Sabo said that he was approached by Bayern's goalie Árpád Fazekas who offered him to remain in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

International goals

Honours

Player

Dynamo Kyiv *

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

Soviet Cup The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (),, , , (Moldovan Cyrillic: Купа УРСС), , , . was the premier football cup competition in the Soviet Union conducted by the Football Federation of the Soviet Union. The 1991–92 season of the tournam ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

, 1965–66 Dynamo Moscow *

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

runner-up: 1971–72

Manager

Dynamo Kyiv * Vyshcha Liha: 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97 *

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( ) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003–04 season, the Cup winner qu ...

: 1995–96, 2004–05

Orders

Order of Merit The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order r ...

, a full cavalier of the order ** 3rd degree (15 October 1999) ** 2nd degree (12 October 2004) ** 1st degree (1 December 2011)

References

External links

* Verbytsky, I.
Yozhef Sabo: In Moscow I was constantly called fascist
'. UA-Football. 4 March 2015. *

at the RussiaTeam {{DEFAULTSORT:Sabo, Yozhef 1940 births Living people Footballers from Uzhhorod Soviet people of Hungarian descent Soviet men's footballers Soviet Top League players Soviet First League players FC Kalush players FC Dynamo Kyiv players FC Dynamo Moscow players FC Hoverla Uzhhorod players FC Zorya Luhansk players 1962 FIFA World Cup players 1966 FIFA World Cup players Olympic footballers for the Soviet Union Footballers at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union Soviet football managers Soviet Union men's international footballers FC Zorya Luhansk managers FC CSKA Kyiv managers FC Dnipro managers FC Dynamo Kyiv managers Soviet Top League managers Soviet First League managers Soviet Second League managers Ukrainian Premier League managers Olympic medalists in football Ukraine national football team managers Ukrainian people of Hungarian descent Hungarian Eastern Catholics Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Ukrainian football managers Men's association football midfielders