Ferenc Puskas dies at the age of 79

quazzy

Puskas scored 83 goals in 84 games for Hungary from 1945 to 1956

Scored 512 goals for Real Madrid in 528 matches and won the European Cup three times with the Madrid side.

From:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/6155766.stm


What a Legend

RIP

besty

Legend, one of the best ever!

RIP

quazzy

Just found this footage

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EjNBsRmR3Q0

patmac

One of the best players never to win the World Cup was injured in an earlier round by the Germans in the 1954 WC who they beat 8-3 sat out the rest of the tourney until the final he then convinced his manager that he was fit to play and scored the opening goal but his injury recurred and was a passenger for the rest of the match (no subs in those days) the Germans (fuelled by illegal drugs allegedly) went on to win 3-2 a massive shock at the time.

The Russians then rolled into Budapest whilst the Hungarian team were on a tour so he fled to Spain and had more or less signed for Barcelona but Real Madrid stole him from under thier noses and with Alfredo Di Stefano went on to dominate Spain and Europe in the late 50's and early sixties.
A sad day any man that starred for a team that beat England 6-3 at Wembley considered a fluke at the time and could never happen again until England went to Budapest for revenge and got tanked 7-1 is a true legend.
RIP

wheres me jumpa

quazzy wrote:

Puskas scored 83 goals in 84 games for Hungary

Scored 512 goals for Real Madrid in 528 matches

What a record :eek: .

R.I.P.

Kojak

An absolute legend.

R.I.P.

Andrew 83

Very sad news.

Does anyone remember a year or two ago Real played a benefit match in Budapest that was designed to raise funds to help him as he was near penniless and seriously ill. They then charged a massive playing fee, stayed in the most expensive hotel in Budapest (and took the costs of the hotel and their room service from the match gate), and basically took any money they could resulting in the match ending up making virtually nothing for the man. Sickening behaviour.

EDIT: Just found the stats about what I'm talking about on the internet:

Total Raised: 1.7 million euro
Real's match fee: 1.3 million euro
Real's accomodation: 104,000 euros
Stadiu, security etc: 216,000 euros
Amount rasied for Puskas: 91,000 euros

There was a more in detail piece in World Soccer at the time I think. That he only received 91,000 of 1.7 million is disgraceful.

Mitch Connor

One of the very few players to actually deserve the legend status that is thrown around so much. Even from the very little i have seen of him (being only 22, its only clips on DVDs and documentaries about the man) i would doubt many of the players today, such as Rooney, Ronaldo (either one) Gerrard, Henry could ever reach his level. Just look at the type of pitches he played on, and the type of footballs he played with and imagine what he could do in todays game.

RIP. A true legend

redspider

An amazing player and one of the greats, a real legend of football and a name that will stay written in the annals for decades to come.

Puskas proved his skills at every level, and was an original 'Galactico'. He played at a time in Hungary when their football was on the rise, and was part of an amazing unbeaten run, the mighty Magyars, and of course the humiliation of England 6-3 at wembley, and then again 7-1 in Hungary.

The biggest controversy though was their loss in the 1954 World Cup final to West Germany, losing 3-2 with a goal 6 mins from the end. They were favourites for the tournament and beat Germany 8-3 along the way. They were also 2-0 up in the final after only 8 minutes. The capitulation and loss is somwhat of a contentious nature with claims of performance-enhancing drugs being used by the West Germans, etc. Either way, Hungary were deserving of winning at least one world cup.

With the problems of 1956 in Hungary, the players being out of the country didnt return and they plied their trade to good effect at international clubs. The national team suffered too, and Wales beat them at the WC in 1958.

Thanks Ferenc ....

Redspider

redspider

By the way, its funny what you learn each day. I was just looking up the 1950 world cup to see what if anything Hungary did in that. What I found is that they didnt go/qualify or have resources to go, it being post-war Europe and all that. However, I noticed that Scotland withdrew and also India. India ? Yes, thhat was news to me.

It seems:

India qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup as a result of the withdrawal of all of their scheduled opponents. However, they did not take up their place in the competition because FIFA demanded all players at the World Cup finals should wear football boots. A number of the Indian players refused to abide by this rule and the team was forced to withdraw; the team has never since come close to qualifying for the World Cup.

I wonder if they would have gone and done reasonable, would the sport have become more popular and flourished there as cricket has to some extent? With such a large population, the face of world soccer may have been different with India now a burgeoning Brazil .... or maybe not.

Redspider

Rollo Tamasi

Andrew 83 wrote:

EDIT: Just found the stats about what I'm talking about on the internet:

Total Raised: 1.7 million euro
Real's match fee: 1.3 million euro
Real's accomodation: 104,000 euros
Stadiu, security etc: 216,000 euros
Amount rasied for Puskas: 91,000 euros

There was a more in detail piece in World Soccer at the time I think. That he only received 91,000 of 1.7 million is disgraceful.

Real Madrid really are a shower of greedy feckers aren't they.

MrJoeSoap

According to Jimmy Magee, there was a run that Hungary went on around the 1954 World Cup where they played 50 games, won 42 of them, drew 7 and the only defeat they suffered was in the World Cup Final. Unusual that football doesn't thrive in Hungary like it once did.

Legend. Rest in peace.

c m

he was the perfect striker
rip

Big Ears

I have only seen clips of him but he truely seems to be an amazing player , well deserving of his legend status .

RIP the Galloping Major .

zAbbo

Very one footed, but what a left peg, saw lots of clips of him from the Real era.

A proper legend

redspider

MrJoeSoap wrote:

According to Jimmy Magee, there was a run that Hungary went on around the 1954 World Cup where they played 50 games, won 42 of them, drew 7 and the only defeat they suffered was in the World Cup Final. Unusual that football doesn't thrive in Hungary like it once did.

Ah, the "Memory Man", I wouldnt bet against Jimmy ;-)

But yes, they had an incredible record, and as mentioned, that sole loss was under some dubious circumstances. There is also the issue that as the rise of the iron curtain proliferated, that loss was also seen as a west versus east final, and capitalism versus a communist country. Hungary was under Soviet communist system from 1945 onwards, and a revolution was put down in 1956.

I could be wrong but I seem to remember that one reason for the rise of Hungarian football was in fact the support of the army, the government, etc, and it was promoted as the national game, and their success represented the nation. I am sure they were up to their fair share of nefarious training 'supplements' in those days, so on the one hand, we have to taint many plaudits with that. But, Puskas and several others had skills, no doubt about that.

Redspider

Third_Echelon

his scoring rate was phenominal... He was guaranteed to score in every game he played in..Crazy

Kispest Honved (354 apps, 357 goals)
Real Madrid (528 apps, 512 goals)
Hungary (84 apps, 83 goals)

You wouldn't see that in the modern era of football!

Guy:Incognito

Third_Echelon wrote:

his scoring rate was phenominal... He was guaranteed to score in every game he played in..Crazy

Nah theres clearly 14 games there that he didnt score in.


RIP.

kinaldo

rip

and nearly to the date of a full year since another legend george best passed away.

iregk

Certainly is a crying shame that the man is gone. He was a true legend in every sense of the word. Together with Di Steffano he formed possibly the greatest attacking partnership the game has ever seen. His goals to game ratio is amazing and possibly only rivaled by another legend the great Gunnar Nordahl.

The WC loss was littered with scandal. The Germans refused to own up but the entire world knew they were on drugs. A notion that also came back up in subsequent olympic games.

A funny thing about the India comments is an article i read a few years back in World Soccer mag. It was saying the Indian footie team got back together in the 90's for a match only as soon as they started a lot of fans ran onto the pitch an assaulted the players. This apparently was due to the players wearing shorts!!! It went against their religion and FIFA would not allow trousers to be worn...

Third_Echelon

Stekelly wrote:

Nah theres clearly 14 games there that he didnt score in.


RIP.

Now... where did i leave my pedantic hammer...