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[JeJuJitsu]

Hungary will always remember Ferenc Pusk�s for helping to put the nation firmly on the world football map. uefa.com looks back at the early life of one of the game's all-time greats, as he emerged from humble beginnings to claim league titles with Kispest Honv�d FC and become the inspiration behind the 'Magical Magyars', who were the first foreign side to win at Wembley when beating England 6-3 in 1953.

Pusk�s was the greatest player in a great team, the tubby genius who made Hungary tick. It might have been N�ndor Hidegk�ti, the deep-lying centre-forward, who unpicked England's defence that Wembley afternoon 53 years ago, but the goal that everybody went home talking about was the third, when Pusk�s rolled the ball back with his studs to evade the challenge of Billy Wright, then lashed it into the top corner.

Wonderful vision
"I believe that if a good player has the ball, he should have the vision to spot at least three options," said the Hungary right-back Jen� Buz�nszky. "Pusk�s always saw at least five." It was not just his playing ability that marked Pusk�s out, though: his relationship with the coach Guszt�v Sebes was critical to the development of the country's golden squad.

Footballing child
Pusk�s never knew a world without football. He was born in April 1927 in Kispest, a village on the edge of Budapest that would become central to the development of the 'Magical Magyars'. As a child, Pusk�s lived in a flat right next to Kispest FC's stadium.

Left foot
His father played for and later managed the club, and family legend has it that almost as soon as he had learned to walk, Pusk�s began kicking a ball - although only, of course, with his left foot as Pusk�s vies with Diego Maradona for the title of the world's greatest one-footed player.

Underage player
Lying about his age, along with J�szef Bozsik who would also travel to the top, Pusk�s signed for Kispest as a junior in 1936, making his first-team debut in 1943. Although criticised for holding on to the ball too long, and his habit of shouting at older players, he soon became a regular.

International respect
Kispest struggled in the league - which went on despite the German occupation and subsequent Russian counterattack - but Pusk�s was called up to the national squad for the first two post-war internationals in August 1945. Although he was left out of the first game, he scored in the second - a 5-2 win against Austria.

Army team
Pusk�s assumed the captaincy of Kispest in 1946, and results began to improve. Two years later, Sebes was appointed to a three-man coaching committee in charge of the national side. He soon took charge in his own right, a few months before Hungarian clubs were forcibly nationalised by the pro-Soviet government and Kispest became Kispest Honv�d FC, the team of the army.

Conscripted players
Sebes had seen how the great Italy and Austria sides of the 1930s were largely based on one, or at most two clubs, and realised what an opportunity nationalisation presented. Kispest was to house the core of his squad - and players who did not want to join could be conscripted.

'Tremendous understanding'
Working with his players day in, day out at Honv�d, Sebes was able to fine-tune his tactical experiments. He would even arrange friendlies against other Hungarian clubs who would be asked to take on the tactical shape and characteristics of Hungary's next opponents. "We came to have a tremendous understanding of everything required to play the game," Pusk�s said.

Happy accident
Sebes might have been pulling the strings, but Pusk�s was his representative on the pitch - the man he trusted to make tactical changes during a game. Destiny is easy to impose retrospectively, but the 'Magical Magyars' would probably never have existed had Sebes and Pusk�s not been flung together in a world of nationalised clubs.

arewell to Ferenc Pusk�s Bir� (April 2, 1927�November 17, 2006)

RIP

Pusk�s was admitted to intensive care in a Budapest hospital on September 13, 2006 and died on November 17, 2006.

Professional Clubs Apps (Goals)

1939-56 Kispest AC/Honv�d 354 (357)
1956 RCD Espa�ol
1956-67 Real Madrid CF 528 (512)

National team

1949-56 Hungary 85 (84)
1961-62 Spain 4 (0)

Teams Managed

1967: Hercules ALicante
1967: San Francisco Gales
1967-1968: Vancouver Royals
1969: Alaves
1970-1974: Panathinaikos FC
1974-1976: Colo Colo
1976-77: Sza�di-Ar�bia, National Team
1977: Murcia
1978-1979: AEK Ath�n
1979-1984: Al-Maszri
1985: Sol de America
1986: Cerro Porteno
1988-1991: Panhellenic South Melbourne
1993: Hungarian NT manager (4 games)

Honours

Player

Hungary

Olympic Champions: 1
1952

Dr. Ger� Cup Winners: 1
1948/53

Honv�d
Hungarian League: 5
1949-50, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1955

Real Madrid
Spanish Championship: 5
1960/61, 1961/62, 1962/63, 1963/64, 1964/65
Pichichi Trophy Winner: 4
1959/60, 1960/61, 1962/63, 1963/64
European Cup: 1
1959/60
Intercontinental Cup: 1
1960
Copa del General�simo: 1
1961/62

Manager success

Greek championship

Panathinaikos FC 1969-70, 1971-72,
AEK Ath�n 1978-79

European Cup finalist
Panathinaikos FC 1971

Australian Champions: 1
South Melbourne Hellas 1990/91

Austr�lian Cupwinner
South Melbourne Hellas 1990

An All Time Great.

[Adventurer]

My father used to watch Puskas play on television and delighted in watching him. I saw old black-and-white games with him playing. I used to have a video called the giants of Brazil and it showed very old games with Puskas scoring brilliantly. He had tremendous energy that he seemed to control very well.

[Canucksaram]

I only ever heard of Puskas from my father, who was born and raised in Hungary (Mohacs) and then at the age of 17 or 18 fought in the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution. Fleeing retribution after the failed revolution, he ended up in Canada.

My father says he almost didn't complete his schooling, for love of soccer, and that his childhood dream was to join a professional league. I am one of the few Canadians I know who prefers soccer over hockey or football--largely because of my father's great love for the game. He was rags poor, as a child, and I am convinced that soccer is so popular with the poor 'round the world because of the accessibility of the game: one ball, easily designated goalposts, and players. Voila!

I wonder: whom else on this board has a Hungarian background?

-Canucksaram, AKA Furrier

[JeJuJitsu]

[Gladiator]

I would like to add my tribute to the death of Puskas and glad to see it got some coverage and the great man got a decent orbiturary in The Guardian.

In the modern era the one player who resembled him physically and stylistically was perhaps Romania's Hagi; another quick, stocky customer with devilish skills and who also possessed an atomic left foot.

RIP Puskas, football will be poorer without you but your contributions live on for eternity.