RIP Puskas

[thebish]

ought to be marked somewhere...

(one or two members are old enough to remember him!)

Ferenc Puskas - the "little fat chap" died today - Hungarian Legend, put England to the sword!!

R.I.P.

[Village Idiot]

Seen him a lot in old films. He was called "Little Cannon" here due to his unstoppable shot. One of the few Real players I'll openly confess that I admire

RIP

[Dujon]

He certainly beat some goalies in his career. His career average is very close to 1 goal per game. Quite astonishing - even more so given that he played close to 1000 games for his clubs and countries. Regretably I haven't seen him play but he must have been something to watch.

[Montreal Wanderer]

I did see him play on TV for Hungary (we got our first tv in May 1953 in time for the Mathews Cup Final and the Coronation - the 6-3 slaughter was the first international we saw )and Real with di Stefano. Powerful combination.

[Bruce Rioja]

A truly remarkable footballer, but does anyone know how come he came to represent Spain on four occasions despite having played 85 games for Hungary?

[communistworkethic]

A truly remarkable footballer, but does anyone know how come he came to represent Spain on four occasions despite having played 85 games for Hungary?

I always assumed it was on residency grounds. FIFA.com says...

In 1961, at the age of 34, Puskas took up Spanish nationality and went on to play four times for his adopted country team at the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile. In his brief spell with La Roja, he played in two wins, one draw and one defeat.

Wikipeadia says he left Hungary on political grounds, one assumes the rise of communism was not to his taste.

[Village Idiot]

International rules were far more lax back then, Kubala, another of the hungarian greats, played for 4 different countries in his life. Franco's regime was known to give Spanish nationality almost automatically to great footballers (Puskas, Kubala, Di Stefano) in order to raise the team's profile.

[malcd1]

Here are a couple of goals I've found on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU4K12SpDzo

Same goal from different camera angle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU4K12SpDzo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE_8lari44w

[Bruce Rioja]

Good work, Malc.

I do believe that that's the legendary Billy Wright that he's making a monkey of on there. I believe that there weren't many that got to do that.

[Dujon]

Thanks, Malc. Crikey he didn't half hit the leather. That was effectively a dead ball situation and he belted it on the turn - no wonder they called him The Cannon.

[Montreal Wanderer]

Good work, Malc.

I do believe that that's the legendary Billy Wright that he's making a monkey of on there. I believe that there weren't many that got to do that.

Yes, it was Billy - captain, left half and the only player with over a hundred caps when I was a kid. Course, he played for Wolves and I hated them. For some reason, though Nat was the 1953 footballer of the year, he didn't play that game - injured?

[TANGODANCER]

Knocks up another great Hungarian name and team mate of Puskas; Hiddejkute (sp). Seems a long time ago now. Hungary were a real force in that era.

[Zulus Thousand of em]

Good work, Malc.
I do believe that that's the legendary Billy Wright that he's making a monkey of on there. I believe that there weren't many that got to do that.

It was indeed the great Billy Wright. That lunge he made as Puskas waltzed around him led to the the unforgettable comment from a leading football journalist of the day that "Wright looked like a fireman rushing to the wrong fire". Sweet!

[Village Idiot]

A little known photo of the great Puskas with a Barça shirt