Ferenc Puskas was a footballer whose goalscoring feats for both Hungary and Real Madrid in the 1950's and 60's simply beggar belief. His statistics have the power to overwhelm; so outlandish do they appear. Puskas, quite literally averaged a goal per game throughout his entire twenty-three year career. At club level he amassed 519 goals in 529 games, add to this his astonishing haul of 84 in 85 matches for Hungary and you have a legacy of predation that represents the very highest pinnacle of the scorers’ art. Of those who plied their trade at the apex of European league football only Gerd Muller even comes close to Puskas' dazzling numbers.
Statistics do not do Justice to Puskas’ Unique Talent
Strangely relying on statistics when assessing the nature of Puskas’ greatness would be to lessen and diminish the great man’s impact on the game of football. A mercurial, if somewhat portly inside forward, Puskas possessed arguably the greatest left foot in the history of the sport. Cultured, poised and incongruously mobile the Galloping Major was a technical talent the equal of any of today’s fawningly lauded superstars.
Few who witnessed it will ever forget the gracefully fluid drag back which left a player of Billy Wright’s stature a prone and beaten man on the Wembley turf. Hungary’s cataclysmic 5-3 win over England and Puskas’ two-goal contribution that day, will forever embellish the great man’s legacy. On this fateful day for English football, Puskas announced himself as the greatest striker in the world.
First Career In Hungary
Making his debut in 1943 as a 16-year old Puskas quickly established himself as something of a goal scoring prodigy. By the 1945-46 season Ferenc was firmly established as a first team regular and his 35 goals in 33 games announced his arrival as the pre-eminent marksman in the Hungarian league. Puskas made his international debut on August 20th 1945, scoring in a 5-2 win over Austria. It was to be the first of an avalanche of international strikes over the next 17 years.
Puskas was the top scorer in the Hungarian league on four separate occasions. Indeed in 1948 his 50 league goals saw him crowned as Europe’s highest scorer. Kipest was taken over by the Hungarian Ministry of Defence the following year, being renamed Budapest Honved. The change did nothing to blunt his potency in front of goal. Scoring with almost unseemly regularity Puskas helped turned Honved into the undisputed powerhouse of the Hungarian game. His record, at the end of the 1955-56 season stood at 352 goals in 341 games. He had also claimed five league titles.
Second Career in Spain
Puskas and his Honved team were poised to return home following a European Cup tie against Athletic Bilbao in 1956 when word reached them of the Hungarian Revolution. Choosing not to return home the 29 year old Puskas was thrust into footballing limbo. Banned by UEFA for two years he found himself without a club and cast adrift internationally.
As the end of his ban loomed in 1958 Manchester United, bereft of leaders following the Munich Air Disaster, made an attempt to sign him. The xenophobic FA rules prevented this potentially epoch defining move and unwanted in Italy (where he’d spent some portion of his lost years), seen as overweight and washed up he turned instead to Spain.
Records Tumble at Madrid
Real Madrid were never to regret the gamble they took on the thirty-one year old. Taking to life in Spain with aplomb Puskas set about adding polish to his reputation. Puskas won the Pichichi as Spanish League top scorer on no less than five occasions. Puskas and Alfredo Di Stefano went on to form the most lethal striking tandem in world football.
With the Puskas-Di Stefano axis literally unstoppable Real won the European Cup twice in succession in 1958-9 and 1959-60. The final in 1960 against Eintracht Frankfurt is rightly lauded as one of the great club performances of all time. Puskas, managing to eclipse even his revelatory performance against England, scored four times in a 7-3 win.
Real reached the final again, against Benfica in 1962, yet despite a typical Puskas hat-trick they lost 5-3. Puskas was still a member of the Madrid side that triumphed one last time in 1966, beating Partizan Belgrade 2-1 in Brussels. By the time he retired he had established himself as one of Madrid’s greatest ever strikers, claiming 157 goals in 182 games.
An International Legend
Puskas is most often remembered as the focal point of the magnificent Hungarian team of the early 1950’s. His 84 goals place him ahead of even Pele in the all time list. Yet strangely he only played in one World Cup. His contribution to the 1954 tournament in Switzerland was fitful. Limited through injury to only three games in the competition he still managed to claim four goals.
Returning half fit for the final against Germany, Puskas scored the opening goal of the game after six minutes. Germany though fired back to lead 3-2 with only minutes remaining. Puskas then scored what appeared to be a legitimate equaliser only for it to be chalked off by Welsh linesman Benjamin Griffiths. Hungary unbeaten in four years had cruelly lost the one game that mattered. Puskas though did get his hands on one major international trophy. His four goals helped Hungary secure the 1952 Olympic title.
A Legend Remembered: The FIFA Ferenc Puskas Award
Puskas passed away, aged seventy-nine in 2006. The national stadium was renamed in his honour and he was buried underneath the basilica of Saint Stephen’s cathedral in Budapest. FIFA, in a move universally applauded by all, have decided, as of this year to award The Ferenc Puskas Award to the recipient of Europe’s “most beautiful goal.” A fitting tribute to a man who specialised in producing moments of the truly sublime. Ferenc Puskas the greatest goal scorer of all time.
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