Anton Ondruš


Anton Ondruš is a former Slovak football player and considered one of the best defenders of the seventies.

Early club career

He started to play regularly for Slovan Bratislava in the fall of 1972. With this club, he won the Czechoslovak League in 1974 and 1975, and he later become the captain of this team, playing in total in 210 matches and scoring 38 goals. The team won the Czechoslovak Cup in 1974.

International career

Ondruš played 58 matches for Czechoslovakia and scored 9 goals. As a captain, he led the national team in the 1976 UEFA European Championship. His superb performance against Cruyff's Netherlands in semi-finals where he scored twice opened his team the door to the final match where Czechoslovakia won the gold medal in the famous Belgrade Night game against the then world champion Germany. At the 1980 UEFA European Championship, he contributed to the national team's bronze medal.

Later career

1981 Ondruš changed to Club Brugge K.V. to Belgium, but he played only nine games. From 1983 till 1987 he played in the French club CS Thonon-les-Bains and towards the end of his career at FC Biel-Bienne, Switzerland.
1997 he was a president of Slovan Bratislava for a short period. Currently he works in Switzerland.