Remembering Puskas: Hungarian legend who revolutionised football
An actor playing Hungarian-Spanish football legend Ferenc Puskas, alias Pancho is seen on stage at the Erkel Theatre in Budapest on August 18, 2020, during a rehearsal of a musical of Puskas' life that will open on August 20th.
What you need to know:
- Kenya is known to abandon her sporting heroes who fade to the oblivion in retirement but elsewhere, such athletes are treated as true heroes and more often, they are rewarded in special ways
- Among such men and women who have revolutionised their sport is Ferenc Puskas, the Hungarian footballer and coach widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the sport’s first international superstar who played for Hungary (1945 to 1956) before changing nationality to play for Spain (1961 and 1962)
- On Thursday, the world marked 75 years since Puskás played for the first time for the Hungarian national team and scored his first national league goal
As is with any venture, sports provides athletes with a platform to earn a living and to make a name for themselves. But there are men and women who go beyond the demands of their trade to perfect their skills, thereby getting an edge over others that makes them spectacularly stand out.
In football, it could mean spending an hour more doing gym work to develop requisite physique and stamina for winning aerial duels, or staying behind at the training ground to perfect free-kicks and penalty taking skills. In the case of a basketball, it may mean spending an extra hour alone on the courts perfecting free-throws late into the night.
The results will be clear for all to see in competitions. You have an efficient, finished material with a clear competitive edge over opponents.
On the pitch, they treat spectators to jaw-dropping performances, leaving them with treasured memories that last a life-time. Kenya is known to abandon her sporting heroes who fade to the oblivion in retirement but elsewhere, such athletes are treated as true heroes and more often, they are rewarded in special ways.
Among such men and women who have revolutionised their sport is Ferenc Puskas, the Hungarian footballer and coach widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the sport’s first international superstar who played for Hungary (1945 to 1956) before changing nationality to play for Spain (1961 and 1962.)
Puskas is to football what Jonah Lomu is to rugby. He was a key member of the “Golden Team”Hungary’s national team of the 1950s that remained unbeaten in 32 games.
European player of century
Born on April 1, 1927, Puskas scored 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary and played four matches for Spain. A lethal striker, Puskas (born Ferenc Purczeld) scored 514 goals in 529 matches in Hungarian and Spanish leagues.
He played for Hungarian league team Kipest AC which was later to be taken over by the Hungarian Ministry of Defence and renamed Budapest Honved. The consequence of that takeover was that all the players in the team were given military ranks, and Puskas became a major.
Puskas helped the team win five Hungarian league titles, finishing as the league’s top scorer from 1947-50 and in 1953, scoring a total of 133 goals and in the process earning the nickname “Galloping Major.”
Other than finishing as Europe’s top goalscorer in 1948, he won the Olympics title with Hungary in 1952 and took his team to the final of 1954 Fifa World Cup held in Switzerland, becoming the tournament’s best player.
He won three European Cups (1959, 1960 and 1969) with Real Madrid, five league titles in Hungary and five consecutive La Liga titles with Real Madrid.
Other than coaching Panathinaikos of Greece to the final of 1971 European Cup where they lost to Johan Cruyff’s Ajax Amsterdam and winning the National Soccer League title in Australia with South Melbourne Hellas, he did not achieve much success as a manager. But that does not take the shine away from him.
For his exploits, he was named European Player of the 20th Century by French sports newspaper L’Equipe, and Hungarian Player of the 20th Century by International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS). IFFHS also named him football’s top scorer for 20th century.
No reward for Kenyan legends
The Fifa Puskas Award is named in his honour. The award, which celebrates the player who scores the most aesthetically significant (just a big word for most beautiful) goal in a calendar year, was established in 2009. It was dedicated to the memory of Puskas, who died in 2006. Daniel Zsori from Hungarian club Debrecen beat five-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi to the honour last year.
But his country Hungary has done a lot to preserve his memory. In 2002, the country renamed the 38,652-seater multi-purpose Ferenc Puskás Stadium ‘Puskas Ferenc Stadion.’
The newly-built Puskás Aréna, its metro station Puskás Akadémia FC, and a street in Budapest all bear his name. In 2017, a statue was unveiled in Melbourne, Australia, in his memory following his exploits with South Melbourne Hellas.
On Thursday, the world marked 75 years since Puskás played for the first time for the Hungarian national team and scored his first national league goal. Kenyan football administrators could learn a thing or two from Hungarian football federation on how to honour legends.
Today, Kenya has neither honoured its all-time leading scorer Dennis Oliech nor rewarded those who came before him.
