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Sarosi (right) meets Italian captain Giuseppe Meazza before the 1938 final. Allsport/Hulton/Archive |
Ferencvaros' great center forward led Hungary to the final of the 1938 World Cup.
Nicknamed "The Doctor" -- he had a law degree -- Sarosi was one of Hungary's most prolific players, scoring 42 goals in 61 games.
The knockout format of the finals in France gave the highly fancied Hungarians an easy route to the championship match. In the first round Sarosi scored twice in a 6-0 win over the Dutch East Indies. A 2-0 win over Switzerland followed, and in the semifinal he was on target again in a 5-1 rout of Sweden. Hungary's dominance was so complete that a blackbird is said to have spent most of the match sitting on its crossbar.
But in the final, Sarosi and his teammates came up against world champion Italy. In a battle between two of the era's greatest center forwards it was the Italian Silvio Piola who came out on top. Although Sarosi scored to bring Hungary back to 3-2 down, the Italians finished 4-2 winners.
The outbreak of war ended Sarosi's international career, and he fled the country after the communist uprising in the late 1940s, settling into a successful coaching career in Italy.
