Péter Disztl celebrates 60th birthday

Born in Baja on March 30th 1960, Disztl moved to the Videoton club from the Baja SK youth team. “Down there in the south, Baja Építők was the club of my favourite goalkeeper - that is, my father - whose every game I watched during my childhood. In 1972, he thought about taking me to a training session and eventually he did. I kept coming... a year later, the B and C teams of the Hungary youth squad played a training match in Pest. I managed to save a penalty - I remember it being kicked to my left ... - and it was watched by Gyula Lantos, my current coach, and Gyula Rákosi. A great little group then came together in our top-tier youth team and when I was called up to the full squad, I was so thrilled I could barely stop running around,” Disztl said in an interview in the January 1978 issue of 'Labdarúgás' ('Football').

In the 1977-1978 league campaign, he came on for his debut for the last seven minutes of Videoton's match against Kaposvár. In that short time, he conceded two goals, the score changing from 4-1 to 4-3. "It certainly wasn't the best introduction (...) Luckily we won and I think the guys were just being polite when they said 'No problem, it's going to get better!' This 420 seconds is still a great experience in my life though..." Disztl later recalled. Perhaps no one had told him that the great Lev Yashin's debut went very badly too, yet he became the only goalkeeper ever to win the Ballon d'Or.

'Petya' was Vidi's goalkeeper in 244 league matches but the march to the 1985 UEFA Cup final was obviously his biggest success. He performed superbly throughout but perhaps the most memorable displays came against Manchester United when he saved a penalty, and, of course, against Real Madrid in the Bernabéu. As a member of the Székesfehérvár club he was a Hungarian Cup finalist in season 1981-1982) and twice a league championship bronze medallist in 1983-1984 and 1984-1985.

In 1987, Disztl transferred to Budapest Honvéd, Where he won two Hungarian Championship titles (1987-1988 and 1988-1989) and the Hungarian Cup (1988-1989), also reaching the final of the latter competition twice more, in 1987-1988 and 1989-1990. Other clubs in his career include FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt (1990-1991), VfB Leipzig (1991-1992), Stahl Brandenburg (1992), Selangor (1992-1993), BVSC-Dreher (1993-1994), Veszprém LC (1994), Rába ETO FC (1995), Videton again in 1995-1996(then known as Parmalat FC), Keszthely Haladás (1996) and Pécs MFC (1996-1997 spring).

At national-team level, he made his debut on May 23rd 1984 on his home pitch of the Sostói Stadion in style as he kept a cleansheet in a goalless draw against Norway. What's more, he even made his debut with his brother László. Péter went on to play thirty-seven times for Hungary, most recently on the 15th November 1989 in a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Spain in Seville. To date, he is the last Hungarian goalkeeper to play in the FIFA World Cup - in Mexico in 1986.

He has worked as a goalkeeper coach at several clubs since his retirement, and, for a time, was the Hungarian national-team coach during the tenure of Lothar Matthäus.