Ádám Rothermel

Ádám Rothermel, sometimes written Rothärmel, was born in Budapest on 14 June 1948. His cousin Anna Rothermel, ten years older, was a world champion handball goalkeeper who later became a sports administrator. Friends and teammates knew him throughout his life by the nickname Rotyi.

Rothermel began his top flight career in goal for Tatabányai Bányász, where he played from 1967 to 1972 and reached the 1972 Hungarian Cup final. In 1972, as a Tatabánya player, he was a member of the Hungarian squad that won the silver medal in the men's football tournament at the Munich Olympics. He played 13 times for Hungary between 1970 and 1976.

From 1974 to 1981 he was goalkeeper of Újpesti Dózsa. He won the Hungarian championship three times, in 1974-75, 1977-78 and 1978-79, finished second in 1976-77 and 1979-80 and third in 1975-76, and won the Hungarian Cup in 1975. He was on the pitch for Újpest's memorable 8-3 victory over Ferencváros. He played for Salgótarján in 1982 and ended his career at Soroksár, with 208 Hungarian top division appearances in total.

In 1980 he enrolled in the criminal investigation course at the Police Officers' College and was commissioned in 1983. He worked as a detective at the Újpest police station, then joined the Budapest police headquarters, serving in the robbery squad and later the homicide group, and retired as a police officer.

Those who knew him described Rothermel as warm, funny and full of life. The writer Ede Dunai, a close friend, recalled holidays together at Lake Balaton in the 1970s and said that every memory of Rotyi made him smile. Former teammates spoke of him as a brilliant goalkeeper and a fine man.

Ádám Rothermel's death was announced on Saturday 7 November 2026, in his 79th year, by Ede Dunai, by his family and by Újpest FC on social media, and was reported by the Hungarian news agency MTI. He was 78. His family said he had fought heroically to the last moment through a six week illness, without naming its cause publicly, and that details of his funeral would be announced later. Újpest called him a legend whose deeds, victories and memory would stay with the club forever, and the Hungarian Olympic Committee expressed its sympathy to his family and the football community.

Rothermel belonged to the last Hungarian generation to win an Olympic football medal, the silver of Munich 1972, and to the Újpest side that dominated Hungarian football in the 1970s. He is remembered by Újpest supporters as one of the club's great goalkeepers, and by friends and colleagues for a second career spent investigating serious crime in Budapest.