"There
are no people born on this planet who would not
get on well together once they start kicking the
ball about."
- István Kisteleki,
President of the Hungarian Football Association
(MLSZ)
Ferenc
Puskás (Ferenc Purczeld)
He
was only 15 years old when he played in a
Hungarian national championship. In his first
match, in December 1943, he strengthened the line
of strikers on the Kispest AC team. He was the top
scorer four times. He had exceptional kicking
skills and possessed a remarkable ability to fake
out his opponents, a striker famous for his tricky
left foot.
In the 50s, he was captain of the Hungarian Golden
Team. He won an Olympic gold medal in Helsinki in
1952; in the following year, he secured the
European Cup; and in 1954, in Switzerland, he
earned a silver medal in the world championship
and, in the official estimate of FIFA, was the
tournament's best player. Playing for Real Madrid
between 1958 and 1960, he won three European
Championships, one right after another. He was top
scorer four times in the Spanish league. His
career as a player came to an end in 1965.
Altogether, he had scored 1176 goals, 83 of them
on the Hungarian National Team, where he was one
country's Best Eleven.
After he stopped playing, he worked as a coach and
led the Greek team Panathinaikos to the Euopean
Championship Cup. He also headed the Hungarian
National Team on four occasions. In 2002, People's
Stadium, originally inaugurated in 1953, was
officially renamed Ferenc Puskás Stadium.
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