Legendary coach György Mezey passes away aged 84

Born in Topolya in September 1941, Mezey followed a playing career in the lower leagues with a stint coaching at BVSC in 1971 before he took over the reins at MTK, leading the Budapest club to third place in NB I, their highest finish since 1963. In 1980, Mezey joined the national-team setup, firstly as assistant to Kálmán Mészöly, then as head coach of the national Olympic team between 1982 and 1984 and finally as Mészõly's replacement at the helm of the senior squad.

His tenure heralded the re-emergence of Hungary amongst the world's elite, victories over West Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Wales and Brazil helping propel the nation to the top of the world rankings and a place at the World Cup in Mexico. One win from three group games wasn't enough to reach the knockout stages though and Mezey resigned soon after the tournament. He briefly returned to the role between coaching stints in Kuwait, but his subsequent major achievements would mainly come at club level, where he led both Kispest Honvéd (1990/91) and FC Fehérvár (2010/11) to Hungarian league titles.

Mezey regularly worked at major tournaments and on committees for both FIFA and UEFA, while also leading MLSZ's coaching education programmes and publishing numerous books. Amongst the many awards he received during his long career in football, he was voted 1985 Coach of the Year by World Soccer magazine and was given MLSZ's Lifetime Achievement award at the 63rd Sports People of the Year Gala in 2020.