St George FC, commonly called Saints or Budapest, is a semi-professional Australian soccer club based in the St George district in the south of Sydney. The club was founded by Hungarian immigrants in 1957 as Budapest Club and by 1965 was renamed to St. George-Budapest Club.

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St George FC

Full name	St George Football Club
Nickname(s)	Saints, Budapest
Founded	1957; 67 years ago (1957)
Ground	Rockdale Ilinden Sports Centre (NPL Youth Team) (NSW League One Senior Team) (NSW League One Women Team)
Capacity	5,000
Head Coach	Nefta Gonzalez
League	NPL NSW
2023	2nd of 16 (Promoted via Playoff) NSW League One
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

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One of the top clubs of Australia from the 1960s to the 1980s, St George currently competes in the second-highest tier of Australian soccer, the National Premier Leagues NSW. Their former home ground was the St George Stadium, but due to its dilapidated state, St George has played its youth and senior fixtures at Ilinden Sports Centre since 2018.

St George FC Women compete in the New South Wales League One Womens, third tier of Australian women's soccer. Their home ground is Ilinden Sports Centre from 2023 and Fraser Park for 2022 season, due to the dilapidated state of their former home ground, St George Stadium.

The club was formed shortly after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 by Hungarian Immigrants and was originally known as Budapest. In the 1960s, led by pioneering soccer administrator Alex Pongrass, it became one of the first ethnic clubs in NSW to search for a district to call home and it chose the St George district. It later became known as St George-Budapest before shortening its name to St George some years later. They opened a licensed club, named Soccer House, in the suburb of Mortdale in 1968. In 1969 Frank Arok, the first full-time coach in Australia was appointed, serving two stints as coach, the last ending in 1983 when he left to coach the Socceroos. In between Arok's two stints as coach, Rale Rasic was coach, coaching the club at the same time as he was coaching the Socceroos. In 1971 the club was invited to an international club tournament in Tokyo, Japan. It won and remained the highest ever international achievement by an Australian club side, until South Melbourne FC won the 1999 Oceania Club Championship. However this was surpassed by Sydney FC (Oceania champions) when they finished 5th at the FIFA World Club Cup where, before them, South Melbourne had finished 8th and Western Sydney Wanderers (Asian champions) 6th.

Such was the dominance of St George in those days that up to 10 players on the national team would be St George players. Five of their players were in the Australian side that started against East Germany in the World Cup that year in West Germany, including the vice-captain of the side, the Australian soccer legend Johnny Warren. Another notable player (albeit at a lower level), was football commentator Les Murray. Together with Warren they would become known as "Mr and Mrs Soccer"^[1] and would become the faces of soccer in Australia through their commentary work on SBS Television.

In 1975 at the urging of some former Hungarian soccer greats and youth coach Bob Szatmari, the meeting determined to establish the Australian National Soccer League took place at Soccer House with representatives from all founding clubs, including Hakoah Club (later known as Eastern Suburbs and Sydney City) president and Westfield Group founder and chairman Frank Lowy and Leslie Szatmari. The competition started in 1977 and St. George-Budapest won the competition in 1983. They played in the league until the 1990/91 season. Since then they have played in state competitions. In 2005 the side was controversially axed from the new look New South Wales Premier League and took legal action against the decision along with the Bonnyrigg White Eagles, but were unsuccessful.

• National Soccer League

Champions: 1983

Runner-up: 1982

• NSL Cup

Runner-up: 1979

• NSW 1st Division/NPL NSW 1

Champions: 1967, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1981

Runner-up: 1962, 1964, 1965, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1976

Minor Premiers: 1962, 1972, 1976

• Federation Cup & Waratah Cup

Winners 1964, 1972

Runner-up: 1966, 1974

• NSW 2nd Division/NPL NSW 2/NSW League One

Champions: 2013, 2018

Minor Premiers: 2013

As of 17 February 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

More information No., Pos. ...

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  AUS Andrew Di Blasio 2 DF  AUS Caio De Godoy 3 DF  AUS Troy Danaskos 4 DF  AUS Luke Vlastelica 5 DF  AUS Nicholas Kalogerou 6 MF  AUS Pat O’Shea 7 FW  AUS Jesse Spang 8 MF  AUS Connor Quiligian 9 MF  AUS Peter Grozos 10 MF  AUS Harry Jones 11 FW  AUS Anthony Morobito 12 MF  AUS Dylan Bozicevic

No. Pos. Nation Player 13 DF  AUS Cassidy Tanddo 14 MF  AUS Alexander Malfara 15 DF  AUS Mitch Heapy 16 MF  AUS Sebastian Cerecedo 17 DF  AUS Thomas Brown 18 DF  AUS Mark Rodic 19 FW  AUS Nikola Skataric 20 GK  AUS Daniel Axford 22 MF  AUS Aedan O’Shea 23 MF  AUS Evan Souris 27 DF  AUS Jayden Seeto 30 FW  AUS Justin Poon

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• Osvaldo Ardiles joined St. George Saints FC for the Australian 1985 National Soccer League season on loan from Tottenham Hotspur. He was included in the List of NSL players, which was constructed exclusively to those players who had made at least one appearance in the competition between 1977 and 2004.
• Francis Adoboe participated in the Australian 1989 National Soccer League season and was included in the List of NSL players, which was constructed exclusively to those players who had made at least one appearance in the competition between 1977 and 2004.
• Isadore Acosta became the first Paraguayan to play soccer in Australia.^[6] Acosta played as a forward and finished 7th with St George Saints FC in the Australian 1978 National Soccer League season, making one appearance as a substitute in a 1–0 home loss against West Adelaide SC on 4 June. Acosta entered the field as a substitute in the 40th minute for Carlos Mendez and was replaced in the 75th minute for Emery Holmik.^[7] Acosta was included in the List of NSL players, which was constructed exclusively to those players who had made at least one appearance in the competition between 1977 and 2004.
• Fred Aitken participated in the Australian 1977 National Soccer League season and was included in the List of NSL players, which was constructed exclusively to those players who had made at least one appearance in the competition between 1977 and 2004.
• Roy Cotton participated in the 1979, 1980, 1981, 1985 and 1986 National Soccer League seasons, across two spells with the club.
• Chris Cahill brother of Australia's all-time top goal scorer Tim Cahill was born in Sydney but played for Samoa three times and scored in two of those appearances. Cahill played for St George from 2006 to 2012.