May 11 – Puskas Joins Real Madrid
WHAT do you get the team that has everything? Having just cantered to the first three European Cups, it was hard to see where the great Real Madrid team of the late 1950s could improve.
Today in 1958 though, they signed up an overweight, aging forward who hadn’t played for two years. Not the obvious choice to compliment the likes of Alfredo di Stefano, but then again, Fernec Puskas was no ordinary player.
Puskas had just turned 31 years old and had played a hugely influential role in Hungary’s Mighty Magyars that shocked the world when they strolled to a 6-3 win over England at Wembley in 1953.
In 1956 his Honved side had been playing away at Atletico Bilboa in the first round of the European Cup when revolution broke out in Hungary. With Soviet forces trying to wrestle control back from the revolutionaries, and hundreds of Hungarians being killed in the struggle, the Honved team did not return back home.
After summoning their families from Budapest, the players who were now in limbo took part in a number of fundraising games in Italy, Portugal, Spain and Brazil, despite opposition from Fifa and the Hungarian FA.
Continuing to avoid Hungary, Puskas turned out in a series of unofficial games for Espanyol, whilst Italian giants AC Milan and Juventus made moves to sign him up.
Before this could happen Puskas was slapped with a two-year ban from Uefa. During this period he lived in Austria and then Italy, where he attempted to secure a club once his ban was over, finding no suitors due to his age and weight.
Jimmy Murphy, caretaker manager of the Munich disaster-ravaged Manchester United team made a move for the Hungarian, but FA rules prevented foreigners that could not speak English from signing.
Puskas would then spend the next couple of months losing 18kg to prove he could still cut it physically and was rewarded with a contract at the European Champions.
He wasted no time in making a mark at Los Merengues, scoring four hat-tricks in his first season and over eight years he would bag a remarkable 157 goals in 182 games as he formed one of football’s most deadly partnerships ever with di Stefano.
During his time in Spain, Puskas picked up Five La Liga titles and three European Cups, including the legendary 1960 7-3 win over Eintract Frankfurt, where he grabbed four goals in what is considered one of the greatest performances ever seen.
He hung up his boots in 1966 and began a managerial career that saw him work all over the world, from Panathinaikos to Colo Colo and even the bizarrely named San Francisco Golden Gate Gales.
In 2000 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and fought this illness until he died in 2006, when he was granted a state funeral in his hometown of Budapest.
See Real Madrid paying their respects for one of their greatest ever player below and also check out what other goings on were going on today here. We’ll back tomorrow so don’t go changing.
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