Last active player that is in SWOS 96/97?

The ones that I can think of that are still active:

Alessandro Del Piero, David James, Fredrik Ljungberg and Robert Pires in the Indian Super League (though it s questionable if they should count because of many reasons, like the season finished a few months ago, who knows if the league will happen again, and it s the ISL)

In the English Premier League:
Brad Friedel is still on the books at Tottenham
Kelvin Davis at Southhampton
Thomas Sørensen at Stoke
Jussi Jaaskelainen at West Ham
Steve Harper at Hull
Mark Schwarzer at Leicester

GKs eh? Although most of them only get a look in if there is an injury

I was amazed Totti wasn t in the game, if it d been a year later he would have been.

Almost another 5 years passed, 2015/16 NB 1 season just have started, and we almost have the last man standing here, in Hungary. Check my most below, and the update.

I tried to make a complete list of players who are still playing int the Hungarian highest division (NB I.), and were in SWOS 96/97.

There are 13 players, all Hungarians, although NB I has quite high percent of foreign players (more than 30%). Marek Heinz (33yo) was the best guess, but he was in Czech 2. league then, so not appear in SWOS. Only 1 player weren t then in the NB I. (but in Israel), though all of the players have less or more season in foreign leagues.
The youngest player is now 33 yo. 12 of the 13 players were significant, important players, and sometimes key players for their clubs during some period. I have surprised: All of the 12 players (the exception is Milinte again) played for Hungary.

Here is the list, the current value is from transfermarkt.de, in EUR. It is not realistic in some cases, eg. Lisztes (was the prominently best player from the list) has no real value, or very small, becaues he isn t playing or just minutes, maybe the same is true for Dragóner. On the other side some of these players are key players today, and still in the list of best players in the league. Eg.: Bárányos (abs. not RB but M), Kenesei, Szűcs, Ferenczi, Tököli (and Pető+Molnár in a very-very week Szolnok).


ZOLTAN VEGH G HUN 180k HAPOEL HAIFA = Vasas Bp. 200k 39yo
ZOLTAN MOLNAR RB HUN 450k BVSC = Szolnoki MÁV FC 75k 37yo
TIBOR DOMBI A HUN 180k DEBRECEN = Debreceni VSC 100k 37yo
LAJOS SZUCS G HUN 160k UJPESTI TE = L. Pápa FC 200k 37yo
ZOLTAN PETO D HUN 160k DEBRECEN = Szolnoki MÁV FC 100k 36yo
ATTILA DRAGONER D HUN 130k STADLER = Ferencváros Bp. 200k 36yo
KRISZTIAN LISZTES M HUN 800k FERENCVAROS = Paks FC 200k 34yo
ZSOLT BARANYOS RB HUN 350k KISPEST-HONVED= L. Pápa FC 150k 34yo
ATTILA TOKOLI A HUN 160k PECSI MSC = Kecskemáti TE 300k 34yo
NORBERT TOTH RW HUN 160k PARMALAT = L. Pápa FC 150k 34yo
ARPAD MILINTE G HUN 130k CSEPEL = R. FC Kaposvár 200k 34yo
ISTVAN FERENCZI A HUN 160k GYOR = Vasas Bp. 325k 33yo
KRISZTIAN KENESEI A HUN 180k MTK = Sz.helyiHaladás 250k 33yo


Before = are the SWOS 96/97 datas, and after = are the current datas. The current values are in EUR!

Almost every player had retired. But not all of them!

Szűcs Lajos (G, 41 yo) still playing, last season in the 1st div, but now we have a bit different structure with 12 teams, instead of 16, so the old keeper (still quite good kepper!) also relegated , and playing in div. 2. He had a good chance to become the 2nd keeper of first div MTK, but he is such a bastard: the club fans protested against him.

Dombi Tibor (RW, 41 yo) is a true legend. He played some smaller matches with the first team at Debrecen (afair) last season, but he is with the second squad, and he is coach-player. He is national icon because of his long lasting career without many footballtalent. He is a charming person, many times joking with his own skills. And we have many memes about his forever unretired status.
Like this: i.ytimg.com/vi/-9tMYb4fCww/hqdefault.jpg or that: cdn1.boon.hu/2013/12/dombi2-1-600x400.jpg (his familly name coincidentaly (or not?) means from hill )

But the true almost last men standing are Kenesei Krisztián (38) and Ferenczi István (37) both playing for Vasas (newly promoted, and quite week team), and both players are have the same postition in SWOS: F (and both worth 100k in EUR). So, almost surely that the last man standing in Hungary will be a striker from Vasas (word means literally aprox. with iron - in this context metalworker ). But who will be the last?

Ferenczi is a not very skillfull center (I liked his style), but his last match in fist div. was years ago. In the mean time he had 17 goals in div 2, so still not bad.
www.hlsz.hu/1977-09-14/ferenczi-istvan.html
Kenesei is a very technical and lazy player, he already played in div 1. this season, so he have the better chances right now. His brother was the head of the Hungarian match fixing scandal in the previous years, but it seems not stop Krisztán s carrier.
www.hlsz.hu/1977-01-07/kenesei-krisztian.html

Place your bets, please!

Thank you my friend!

I am afraid I m not/won t be the last man standing My love with SWoS is forever, but my time (and another huge amount of my love) is dedicated to my family. 1-2 live event locally would be very-very nice, and sometimes I play with my running carrier, but online game is quite familyconsuming

And the winner is.... Kenesei Krisztián, az Ferenczi decided not play, but become fitness trainer at Vasas. Nice. My next post will place here after Kenesei s retirement, az the last act in this competition .

dimetrodon posting indeed!
nice to have you back and really hoping to see you online for some cool games mate!


best,

seth river

Oh, many good game, lots of fun back then! Very nice memories indeed!

And the winner is.... Kenesei Krisztián, az Ferenczi decided not play, but become fitness trainer at Vasas. Nice. My next post will place here after Kenesei s retirement, az the last act in this competition .

It was too early to decide the Hungarian winner!

Fernczi indeed become the fitness trainer of Vasas, and not long after that event, Kenesei left the squad, and ended his long first league carrier.

But! After some month, last weekend Vasas was in desperete need for a center. Ferenczi dispite he is the fitness trainer (but have valid papers to play) came into the pitch in the 80th min. against Haladás. With hist first touch of the ball he forced the Haladás defenders to make a fault against him, and it have been resulted a penalty! Ferenczi itself took the ball, and scored, with was the only goal, so Vasas has won the match 1-0 with the goal of the Last active (Hungarian) player of the SWOS 96/97!
Here it is: a classic 45° angle penalty. ;)

What about managers? Ronnie McFall, of Portadown in Northern Ireland finally resigned, and he d been managing them since 1986:

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35735792

Wenger is in 96/97, and is still in a job. Anyone else you know of?