By Ronald Freeman Nov 17, 2006, 12:30 GMT
Hamburg - Ferenc Puskas, who died Friday at the age of 79, is considered one of the greatest footballers in the history of the game and was synonymous with the golden age of Hungarian football in the early 1950s.
Born April 2, 1927, Puskas was known as the 'galloping major' - a reference to the fact that he was an army officer playing for army team Honved, while also leading Hungary to Olympic glory in 1952.
Short and stocky, Puskas cut a portly appearance on the field but was one of the best strikers the game has known, scoring 83 goals in 84 matches for Hungary from 1945 to 1956, mostly with his powerful left foot.
He became a Spanish citizen in 1962 and played for Spain in the 1962 World Cup finals - eight years after he had led Hungary to the 1954 final, only to lose to West Germany in Berne, Switzerland.
Playing for Spain's Real Madrid, Puskas scored 512 goals in 528 matches, winning the European Cup three times and scoring four goals in the 1960 final.
The glory years for Hungary and Puskas were epitomised by the Hungarian side which the British press dubbed 'the Magical Magyars' after an historic 6-3 defeat of England in November 1953 when they became the first team outside the United Kingdom to win at Wembley.
England, supposedly invincible at 'the home of football,' were played off the park by a Hungarian side which then proved it was no fluke by thrashing England at home 7-1 less than six months later.
For the motherland of football the defeats were a major shock. The Hungarian game built round Puskas was a revolutionary short-passing approach which had the English bewildered.
Puskas himself scored two goals in the Wembley humiliation, while his strike partner Nandor Hidegkuti helped himself to a hat-trick.
Hungary, with the likes of Puskas, Hidegkuti and Sandor Kocsis, were unbeaten in four years of international football when they arrived in Switzerland to play the 1954 World Cup later that year.
They were clear favourites when they reached the final in Berne against West Germany. However the ultimate prize was to elude Puskas.
Wily German coach Sepp Herberger had made sure Hungary's most potent weapon was closely marked when the teams met earlier in the tournament, a match Hungary won 8-3 against a mainly second-string German team.
Puskas was unable to finish the game after injuring his ankle in a tackle. He missed the quarter-finals and semi-finals, but pronounced himself ready to play in the final although still not fully fit.
When Hungary took a 2-0 lead with Puskas himself scoring one of the goals, all appeared to be going to form.
Yet with Puskas hampered by injury, Germany, led by captain Fritz Walter, fought their way back to win a famous 3-2 victory celebrated in Germany as the 'miracle of Berne.'
The great Hungarian team team broke up a couple of years later during Hungary's uprising against the Soviet Union in 1956. Puskas later played four times for Spain - three at the 1962 World Cup finals - but failed to score.
It was a different matter at Real Madrid where Puskas had moved from Honved. Partnering another football legend in Alfredo di Stefano up front, they formed a potent strike force.
Puskas was top scorer four times in the Spanish league, helping his team to win six domestic trophies and three European Cups. In the 1960 European Cup final he hit four goals in Madrid's 7-3 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in front of 130,000 fans at Hampden Park, Glasgow.
Puskas played for Real Madrid until 1966, before ending his career at the age of 39. He later led Greek side Panathinaikos to a European Cup final as manager and was also in charge of AEK Athens and Colo Colo of Chile during the 1970s.
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