Edvard Platz

Edvard "Edo" Platz (born 15 May 1911) was a Yugoslav-Hungarian football goalkeeper.

Club career

Born in Sarajevo, during the Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a family of German-Jewish origin, at some point during his childhood he moves to Novi Sad and while a highschool student he starts playing in the youth team of local NAK Novi Sad. Initially, he played as forward, but one day he had to replace the goalkeeper and after a splendid performance the coach has started since next day to coach him at the goalkeepeing position. He was only 15 when he debuted for the first team.

Later, after a brief spell at Juda Makabi, he will sign with FK Vojvodina where he will make himself described by the press as the best goalkeeper Vojvodina had in the period between wars. His great performances called the attention of the major teams from the capital, and in 1937 he joins SK Jugoslavija. His main goal was to archeve a call for the Yugoslav national team, however, in Jugoslavija he had to face the tough competition of taking the starting-place from an already well established and highly reputable Franjo Glazer.

After 3 seasons spent mostly as reserve, although he managed to make 13 appearances at Yugoslav First League, he leaves Belgrade and returns to Vojvodina where he is enthusiastically received back. In 1938 he gots named the team captain for being the most balanced and regular player, and the one most capable of dealing with referees and adversary players. In those next years Vojvodina will create a so-called Millioners team with Platz as main goalkeeper and captain, in what were seasons left in the memory of Vojvodina supporters for decades to come.

Unfortunatelly, in 1941 Second World War starts in Yugoslavia, and Nazi Germany invades the kingdom and creates a total new arrangement of borders and territories. Novi Sad becomes part of the Hungarian occupation of Yugoslav territories. A group of Vojvodina players forcefully joined NAK during the period of Hungarian occupation in order to avoid problems or even being sent to labour (concentration) camps, among them there was goalkeeper Platz, Ivan Medarić (Iván Mézes), Jovan Marjanović (János Máriás), Veljko Avramović (Velykó Avar), Jovica Jovanović (György Jánosi) and Lazar Živković (Lázár Zsoldos). This was specially crucial for Platz because of his Jewish origin. During the period of Second World War, NAK, playing as Újvidéki AC, played 3 seasons in the Hungarian Championship, between 1941 and 1944. In the first two seasons they made mid-table results, by finishing 12th in 1941–42, and 11th in 1942–43, however in 1943–44 they impressed by finishing in 6th place. The 1944–45 season was abandoned after only four match days, with UAC having played only 2 games. Platz because of his experience was made player-coach in the first half of 1942–43 seson, and first 6 rounds of 1943–44 and 1944 seasons.

At the end of the war Novi Sad returned to Yugoslavia and NAK was disbanded. Having gained already coaching experience, Platz decided to accept a coaching position at several Yugoslav clubs, among them FK Srem, FK Bačka Bačka Palanka, FK Vardar, FK Hajduk Kula, among others.