Ferenc Plattkó

Ferenc Plattkó / Francisco Platko

Personal information
Full name	Franz Platko Kopiletz
Date of birth	(1898-12-02)2 December 1898
Place of birth	Budapest, Austria-Hungary
Date of death
Place of death	Santiago, Chile
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1917–1920	Vasas SC
1920	WAC Vienna
1921–1922	KAFK
1922–1923	MTK Hungária FC	17	(?)
1923–1930	FC Barcelona	189	(?)
1932–1933	Recreativo de Huelva
1933	FC Mulhouse	8	(?)
International career
1917–1923	Hungary	6	(0)
Managerial career
1932	FC Basel (assistant)
1932–1933	FC Mulhouse
1933–1934	RC Roubaix
1934–1935	FC Barcelona
1935	FC Porto (assistant)
1936	USA Olympic
1936–1937	Venus Bucureşti
1938	Cracovia
1938–1939	Celta Vigo
1939–1940	Colo-Colo
1940	CA River Plate
1941	Colo-Colo
1941–1945	Chile
1942	Deportes Magallanes
1942–1943	Santiago Wanderers
1943–1944	CA River Plate (techn. director)
1949	Boca Juniors
1950	Chile
1953	Colo-Colo
1953	Chile
1955–1956	FC Barcelona
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

The native form of this personal name is Plattkó Ferenc. This article uses the Western name order.

Ferenc Plattkó (born Franz Platko Kopiletz in Budapest, Hungary, 2 December 1898, died Santiago, Chile, 2 September 1983), also known as Ferenc Platko or Francisco Platko, was a Hungarian footballer and manager of Austrian origin. During the 1910s and 1920s he played as a goalkeeper for Vasas SC, WAC Vienna, KAFK Kula, MTK Hungária FC, FC Barcelona, Recreativo de Huelva. He subsequently worked as a coach in Europe and South America, most notably with FC Barcelona, Colo-Colo, River Plate, Boca Juniors and Chile. Platko was an early FC Barcelona legend and was a team-mate of Paulino Alcántara, Josep Samitier and Sagibarba. His bravery as a goalkeeper was immortalized by Rafael Alberti in the poem Oda A Platko. After retiring as a player he returned to the club as a coach on two occasions (1934–35, 1955–56).

He played 6 matches for the Hungarian national team between 1917 and 1923.

Early career

Platko began his career as a goalkeeper in his hometown of Budapest with local club Vasas SC in 1917 . After a brief spell at WAC Vienna in 1920, he returned to Vasas for another season. Between 1917 and 1923, Platko also played six games for Hungary. In the season 1921/22 he was the coach and goalkeeper for KAFK Kula from Kula (Serbia) where he won the Subotica subassociation championship earning promotion to the Second League of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1922 MTK played two friendlies against FC Barcelona. Both games finished as 0-0 draws and FC Barcelona, impressed with Platko offered him a contract.

FC Barcelona

Platko replaced the legendary Ricardo Zamora, but soon established himself as a legend in his own right. He spent seven years at FC Barcelona between 1923 and 1930. During that time he won six Campionat de Catalunya titles, three Copa del Rey and the first ever La Liga title. The poem Oda A Platko came about following the Copa del Rey final in 1928. FC Barcelona took three games to beat Real Sociedad and during the first encounter on May 20, Rafael Alberti was so impressed with the bravery of Platko that he later wrote the poem in his honour. Platko finished his playing career at Recreativo de Huelva and retired as a player in 1931. He soon began his career as a coach, working in France with FC Mulhouse (1932–33) and Racing Club de Roubaix (1933–34), before returning to FC Barcelona as a coach for the 1934/35 season. Despite guiding the club to another Campionat de Catalunya, the following season he was replaced by Patrick O'Connell. After two decades away from the club Platko was reappointed coach of CF Barcelona for the 1955/56 season. During this season the club, inspired by Ladislao Kubala and Luis Suárez, won 10 consecutive La Liga games in a row. The record remained unbeaten until 2005. Despite this run CF Barcelona only managed to finish second in La Liga behind Atlético Bilbao and Platko was replaced the following season.

South America

During the two decades away from FC Barcelona established himself as a coach in South America. In 1939, during the first of three spells at Colo-Colo he guided the club to the Chilean Championionship. In 1940 he had a spell in charge of River Plate in Argentina before he returned to Chile and Colo-Colo in 1941, winning a second Chilean Championship. In 1941 he took charge of Chile and continued as national team manager until 1945, coaching the team at both the South American Championship in both 1942 and 1945. During 1942 he also coached two other Chilean clubs, Club Magallanes and Santiago Wanderers. In 1949 he coached Boca Juniors and in 1953 he returned to Colo-Colo for a third time and won a third Chilean Championionship.

The Platko Brothers

Franz Platko also had two brothers, Esteban Platko and Carlos Platko who followed him to Spain and subsequently established themselves as coaches. Esteban coached, among others Real Valladolid (1928–31, 1934–40), Granada CF (1943–45) and RCD Mallorca while Carlos coached Real Valladolid (1941–43), Celta de Vigo (1944–46), Girona FC (1948–49) and Sporting de Gijón.

Honours

Player

FC Barcelona

• Spanish Champions: 1
  • 1928-29
• Copa del Rey: 3
  • 1924-25, 1925–26, 1927–28
• Catalan Champions: 6
  • 1923-24, 1924–25, 1925–26, 1926–27, 1927–28, 1929–30

Manager

FC Barcelona

• Catalan Champions: 1
  • 1934-35

Colo-Colo

• Chilean Champions: 3
  • 1939, 1941, 1953

Ode to Platko

Nobody forgets, Platko,
No, nobody, nobody, nobody,
blond bear of Hungary.
Nor the sea,
That in front of you jumped without being able to defend himself.
Nor rain. Nor the wind, that were the one that roared the most.
Nor the sea, nor the wind, Platko,
blond Platko of blood,
goalkeeper in the dust, lightning rod.
No, nobody, nobody, nobody.
blue and white T-shirts, on the air,
real T-shirts,
opposite, against you, flying and dragging you.
With alligator blood in your mouth,
Platko, distant Platko,
blond broken Platko,
tiger burning in the grass of another country.
You, key, Platko, you, broken key,
golden key fallen in front of the golden porch

• This is only very rough translation of poem, needs improving

External links

• Platko at www.fcbarcelona.com
• La Liga players stats
• La Liga manager stats. These stats may have confused Platko with one or both of his brothers