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Hungarian Sports Trainers in Istanbul

Zoltán Gulyás (1948-2015) Hungarian water polo trainer had a significant role in Hungarian water polo, but even bigger in Turkey. He was the manager of the water polo team of Galatasaray from 1988 until 2001. He not only led the team to win the national championship year after year, but also managed to raise the quality of Turkish water polo so that the national team also was able to have success on an international level. After he passed away in the fall of 2015, his Turkish friends, together with his two daughters, threw his ashes into the Sea of Marmara, according to his wish. Fans of Turkish water polo created a memorial exhibition for the Hungarian trainer at the Kalamış Water Polo Hall on the Asian side of Istanbul. Zoltán Gulyás is not the only Hungarian sports trainer whom the Turkish remember proudly: Péter Rezső (1891-1960) put Turkish wrestling on new bases between the two World Wars, making it one of the most successful sports of Turkey even today.

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E-mail:macarkulturmerkezi@mfa.gov.hu