Péter Palotás

Péter Palotás (* June 27, 1929 in Budapest, † May 17, 1967 ) was a Hungarian football player. He completed 24 international matches for Hungary and took the national team of his native country participated in the World Cup 1954 in Switzerland.

Career

Péter Palotás began his career in 1950 at the Budapest club Textiles SE, today MTK Budapest. During his time at the club MTK changed the name four times and was named the meantime also Bástya SE and SE Vörös Lobogo before 1957 assumed its present name. With MTK Budapest striker won in nine years, three times the Hungarian Cup ( 1950/51, 1952/53 and 1957 /58). In his club Palotás played with some of the great Hungarian footballer at that time, for example Nándor Hidegkuti, Mihály Lantos and József Zakariás. Also in the European Cup, the team of coach Márton Bukovi was very successful. So MTK succeeded in 1955, winning the Mitropapokals. In this tournament, Péter Palotás became the first player ever to a hatrick in a European match, namely the 6-3 win against RSC Anderlecht in Népstadion of Budapest. In the second-round match against Stade Reims he scored two goals more, so he with six goals was top scorer at the end of the tournament.

In the Hungarian national football team Péter Palotás 1950-1959 completed a total of 24 games. Along with stars like Ferenc Puskás, Sándor Kocsis and Zoltán Czibor won Palotás 1952, the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Helsinki after a 2-0 playoff victory against Yugoslavia. During the tournament he scored three goals. Two years later traveled the Magyars as a big favorite to Switzerland for the World Cup. In this World Cup Palotás completed two games for his team, in which two goals get him. Both he scored the 9-0 in the preliminary round against South Korea. His second deployed a Palotás in semi-final against Uruguay, where Hungary secured with a 4-2 after extra time the finals. There, however, they lost complete surprise against the Federal Republic of Germany, which was able to celebrate her Miracle of Bern. Two years later Péter Palotás ended his international career after 24 missions in which reach 18 goals him.

In 1959 Péter Palotás had to end his career unexpectedly after he collapsed during a game due to a heart attack and now on sports performance was impossible. Eight years later, on 17 May 1967 Palotás died at the age of only 37 years from heart failure.