Zoltán Czibor

Zoltán Czibor is certainly one of the best players in the history of Hungarian football. A twirling winger, he also had a great quality of finishing, which made him one of the best players in his position in all history.

Trophies

166

Goals

315

Games

1945/48 Komárom MÁV (HON)

1948/51 Ferencváros (HON) 63 games, 40 goals

1951/53 Csepeli Vasas (HON) 51 games, 17 goals

1953/56 Budapest Honvéd (HON) 80 games, 58 goals

1956 AS Roma (ITA)

1958/61 FC Barcelona (ESP) 59 games, 31 goals

(Spanish Championship: 38 games, 17 goals)

(Spanish Cup: 9 games, 6 goals)

(European Champion Clubs' Cup: 7 games, 3 goals)

(European Fairs Cup: 5 games, 5 goals)

1961/62 Espanyol Barcelona (ESP) 15 matches, 3 goals

(Spanish Championship: 10 matches, 2 goals)

(Spanish Cup: 1 match, 1 goal)

(European Fairs Cup: 4 matches)

1961 CE Europa (ESP)

1962 Austria Vienna (AUT) 1 match

1962 FC Basel (SUI)

1963 Hospitalet (ESP) 3 matches

1964 Hamilton Primos (CAN)

1965 Toronto City (CAN)

With the National Team :

43 caps, 17 goals

(Friendly matches: 27 caps, 8 goals)

(World Cup: 5 caps, 3 goals)

(International Cup: 7 caps, 4 goals)

(Olympic Games: 4 caps, 2 goals)

1st cap: May 8, 1949 against Austria (6-1)

Last cap: October 14, 1956 against Austria (2-0)

Zoltán Czibor

Born on 23 August 1929 in Kaposvár (HON)

Died on 1 September 1997 in Győr (HON)

Hungarian, Left-winger, Right-winger 1m69

Nickname: The rebel, The arrow, The madman

A young winger breaking the statistics

Zoltán Czibor was born on August 23, 1929 in Kaposvár, Hungary. First a locomotive driver, he was revealed in the Komáromi MÁV club. And it was quite logical that one of the best clubs in the country, Ferencváros, recruited him and made him a starter. There, the winger who arrived at the age of 19 would dazzle the spectators with his talent, as a winger, he scored 40 goals in 63 games in 3 years.

He won 1 Hungarian championship there and changed dimension, now he is a Hungarian international. He then joined the Csepeli Vasas club and then the country's army club, Budapest Honved, where he won the championship twice. His statistics are simply phenomenal, 58 goals in 80 games. He is among the most effective players in the country and in Europe.

A career stopped by the totalitarian regime

He fled the Russian tanks that came to sweep away the nascent revolution in Budapest in 1956 and took refuge in Vienna. He then signed for AS Roma with the help of the legend György Sárosi, a Hungarian coach stationed in Italy at the time. But he would not play a single official match for the Italian club because of the action of the Hungarian government on players who had fled the country to sign in Europe, they were then banned from playing.

The Legend of Hungary

A genius left winger, he could also play on the right, nicknamed The Arrow for his great speed, he was a lively, fast player and an excellent dribbler. He was the player capable of feinting and then accelerating and eliminating any player in his path. He was also a very intelligent and free player, he had a tendency to constantly drop back in order to bring the surplus in the heart of the game.

A crosser of rare virtuosity, he was the perfect player to address crosses in the surface to Puskás or Kocsis. With Hungary, he became a regular in his position and won the Olympic Games of 1952 then the International Cup of 1953. Legendary player of the Hungarian Golden Eleven, he reached the final of the World Cup 1954, a competition in which he scored 3 goals in 5 matches. But he lost in the final in the Miracle of Bern, a colossal disappointment for one of the best teams of all time. In total, he will have played 43 matches for his country, scoring 17 goals.

A complicated end to a career

His club career resumed after 2 long years without playing in a professional club. He was recruited through Kubala to FC Barcelona where he formed a crazy attacking line of Hungarian and Brazilian players. He experienced the first European Golden Age of FC Barcelona. He won the European Fairs Cup in 1960 and then reached the final of the Champions League in 1961, which he lost.

But this was already the downward slope for the Hungarian virtuoso. At 32, he left FC Barcelona for Espanyol and then played several clubs before finally retiring in 1965 in Canada, at the age of 36.