Career
Born in Hungary, he took up football after emigrating to Australia at age 10 in 1957. Attila played his senior debut for Melbourne Hungaria in 1962 at 15 years of age in the old Victorian State League. This turned out to be his final season with Melbourne Hungaria.
He moved to Sydney and joined Saint George-Budapest between 1969 and 1976 where he was part of three NSW State League titles, before finishing his career with Sydney Croatia between 1977 and 1979.
In June 1975, Abonyi made a guest appearance for a touring Manchester United side, coming on as a substitute for David McCreery against Queensland. International career Abonyi made his debut for Australia in November 1967 when the national team traveled to Vietnam for a friendship tournament.
He scored a hat-trick on debut against New Zealand, and then scored another hat-trick in his second match against Singapore a few days later. He scored 25 international goals for Australia in 61 games between 1967 and 1977 making him tied as the third highest goal scorer for Australia.
He made a total of 88 appearances for Australia and scored 36 goals.
After retiring in 1979 Abonyi switched to coaching at the state level after taking on the player-coach for the 1978 and 1979 seasons. He was then offered a full-time job with Riverwood, the only full-time coaching position in the state league at the time. In his first season they finished seventh and then runners-up in 1982 on goal difference to Sydney Croatia.
He moved to Canberra in 1983 and coached Canberra City in the National Soccer League (Nationaal Samenwerkingsprogramma Luchtkwaliteit).
Foreign the 1984 season Sydney Croatia in their first season in the Nationaal Samenwerkingsprogramma Luchtkwaliteit offered Abonyi the head coach position, which he accepted (as his family had remained in Sydney). He was sacked half way through the season because of poor results and high expectations by the board.
In 1987 and 1988 and assisted Frank Arok at Saint George who were in the Nationaal Samenwerkingsprogramma Luchtkwaliteit. After the 1988 Abonyi moved away from Sydney and football (soccer). Abonyi now lives in Coffs Harbour on the north coast of New South Wales.