Nicolae Szoboszlay

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Nicolae Szoboszlay (also known as Nicolae Săbăslău; 18 July 1925 – 2 January 2019) was a Romanian football goalkeeper and manager.

Club career Szoboszlay, nicknamed "Portarul Zburător" (The Flying Goalkeeper), was born on 18 July 1925 in Orăștie, Romania. He began playing football at Universitatea Cluj during the hardest period of the club's history, as in 1940, the team moved from Cluj to Sibiu as a result of the Second Vienna Award, when the northern part of Transylvania was ceded to Hungary. In 1945, after the end of the Second World War and the return of the northern part of Transylvania to Romania, "U" returned to its home in Cluj. In 1944, because of his Hungarian origins, Szoboszlay was forced to work for two months at the București-Craiova railway. In 1948 he played for CSCA București under the name "Nicolae Săbăslău", as the person who was sent to Bucharest to make his ID wrongly wrote his name that way. On 21 November 1948 he played under coach Colea Vâlcov in the first ever CSCA București – Dinamo București derby. Subsequently, Szoboszlay went to Divizia C side Armata Iași and then made a comeback to Dermagarand Târgu Mureș in 1950.

In 1952, he joined Divizia B club Armata Cluj. Szoboszlay ended his career in 1953, after playing five Divizia A matches for Universitatea Cluj.

International career On 24 October 1948, Szoboszlay played for Romania B in a 4–0 loss to Hungary B.

Managerial career After he retired from his playing career, Szoboszlay worked as a manager and as an assistant coach. In 1958, he returned to Dermata as head coach, helping them earn promotion from Divizia C to the second league. In 1966, Szoboszlay served as head coach for one year in Divizia B at Industria Sârmei Câmpia Turzii, returning afterwards to Universitatea Cluj in first league football for one and a half years as head coach but also as an assistant of Constantin Teașcă. From 1969 to 1972, he coached Arieșul Turda, leading them to promotion from the third league to the second in the 1970–71 season. Between 1976 and 1985, Szoboszlay was the coordinator of the Center for Children and Juniors at Universitatea Cluj where he taught generations of players such as Remus Câmpeanu, Emil Petru, Vasile Suciu, Septimiu Câmpeanu, Alpar Meszaros, Zsolt Muzsnay, Ioan Sabău and Tiberiu Bălan. A book about him was written by Cristian Aszalos, titled Ultimul cavaler al fotbalului romantic, Nicolae Szoboszlay (The last knight of romantic football, Nicolae Szoboszlay), which was released on 26 November 2016.

Szoboszlay died on 2 January 2019 at age 93.

Honours Player Universitatea Cluj Divizia B: 1950 Manager Universitatea Cluj (assistant) Divizia B: 1957–58 Dermata Cluj Divizia C: 1958–59 Arieșul Turda Divizia C: 1970–71