Deceased Monostori Attila

This morning, OSC's age group teams were supposed to play matches against Vác. On the results platform, you can now read for all of them: POSTPONED.

And if we know why the matches had to be postponed, then this word begins to burn our eyes and torment our souls.

Because there was supposed to be a meeting this morning at Szőnyi, where Vác plays its matches, and where Attila "bá" fought in so many big matches back in the day - and where he would have held the usual name reading...

This morning, however, there was no meeting.

There was no name reading.

Just questions, like... why? How? This, this isn't true, is it?

But unfortunately, it is.

Attila "bá" couldn't be there with them this morning.

And he will never be there again. Not at gatherings, not at the kids' matches, not at the practices...

Neither with his family, nor with us.

Manó – as he was called in the nineties - his best years in his career fell in the mid-nineties. After becoming champion with Tungsram in 1992, the former junior national team player, who had medals from two European Championships and one World Championship, joined the senior national team and formed, alongside Németh Zsolt, one of the strongest center-back pairs in the field for three years.

Attila was a true powerhouse, a classic colossus, who didn't leave much room for the centers next to him, and was also capable of unleashing serious bombs upfront if the situation demanded.

Thanks to his qualities, he was indomitable in the national team between 1993 and 1996, becoming European Championship silver medalist in 1993 and 1995, and a World Cup winner in the latter year. He was also one of those who returned disappointed from the Atlanta Olympics, where we eventually finished fourth.

After that, he excelled in his club teams: in 1996, he was signed by BVSC, who surprisingly won the championship that year, and he won the gold medal three times in the following seasons.

In 1999, he moved to Italy: he became one of those who participated in the first, foundational phase of the soon-to-be world-beating Recco's rebuilding - this eventually resulted in a bronze medal in 2000 -, later he also played in Bologna and Savona. Upon his return, he spent a season again at BVSC, then at Ferencváros and Szeged, then moved to Nagyvárad, where he won the Romanian championship four times in a row with CSM Oradea. He finally retired from the game in 2015 in Kecskemét - or rather, he never really left the pool.

Because even in 2022, over the age of fifty, he was still scoring goals in the Budapest league playing for the team named BVSC-Heavy, alongside several former elite players, doing what they loved the most: playing water polo.

He has also been coaching for years, working with OSC's age group teams in recent seasons.

This life dedicated to the sport has now come to a heart-wrenching end. We search for words, but the shock and the immense emptiness that comes with it paralyze the mouth and petrify the fingers pressing the keys.

We just sit and stare ahead with vacant eyes - and all we can whisper is: Farewell, Manó.