So liked and popular was Puskas in Madrid that in his testimonial match that was usually accorded players of distinction at Real Madrid after their retirement from the club, nearly eighty thousand people attended Puskas' own at the Bernabéu Stadium on May 26th, 1969. Huge numbers of supporters turned out for the occasion on a Monday evening in one great, emotional night against Rapid Vienna as a poignant sendoff for a much fondly remembered legend after nine years as one of the greatest-ever players to wear the all-white strip that brought him a place in the hearts of Real Madrid fans. Conversely, three days later, the event taking place at the Bernabéu had been Europe's championship Cup Final between Ajax and Milan merely watched by 32,000 spectators which only speaks of the joyous and warm acclaim by which Puskas was held at Real Madrid.
Puskas, the greatest goalscorer in history and naturally one of its famous greatest leaders in Spain with Real Madrid teamates Jose SantaMaria, recognized as one of the greatest centerbacks in history and Alfredo di Stefano, the greatest center-foward in history.
Powerhouse that he was, a most noble quality of magnanimity to strangers in need was there during, above and beyond his working active years in football parks where he was wholeheartedly supported all his life. After the 1956 Uprising there were pockets of Hungarian expatriates in every major city in the West. While traveling with Real Madrid and beyond, he became a veritable consulate for members of these communities, ready to lend his support financial or otherwise to those who were most in need that enlarged his character. Wherever people were interested in aid and alleviation, there Puskas went as pleasing charming intercessor that gives us the whole man. Puskas’ story illustrates a remarkable Horatio Alger tale of a self-made man and generous to a fault player rising to the pinnacle of the game from humble origins from those youth games in the late 1930s.
The eminent position of Puskás in the field of football is attested by the many successes that crowned his efforts, first becoming Olympic champion, then a very big accomplishment, then European champion in 1953, World Cup finalist in 1954, in addition to being the top goal scorer in the 20th century at top-flight football in Europe and the century’s top goal scorer in the international game who is united to three ultra-prestigious European Champions Cup (1959, 1960, 1966) titles, 1 acclaimed Intercontinental world title (the 1960 inaugural title match), 11 national championship crowns (5 Hungarian Nemzeti Bajnokság & 6 Spanish Primera División) and 8 top individual Most Valuable Player (MVP) scoring honors. A whole generation will best remember Ferenc Puskas as a master player intimately associated with six prestigious European Cup Final matches. Others will recall him for his gaily illustrated goals and exploits with Honved and Hungary while teamed with Sandor Kocsis, who, both, unwittingly, were prophets of the European Cup that began in 1955 with a celebrated encounter (the 'de facto' European championship final between Wolverhampton and Honved) in December at the Molineux in 1954.
The dean of twentieth century goal scorers, Puskas would retire just as the game was assuming a tone that was becoming more and more conservative and stifling. For the next quarter century of his life when Puskas was no longer producing on the pitch he was now contributing his time as a coach and as an elder statesman also that made his own earlier work live for younger generations. He chose a consecutive journey-work life in management and chose that medium for his last message because he felt obliged to tutor and bring mentoring light to youngsters with a grand coaching tour that took him to far away clubs on five continents as a citizen of the world. The 1970-1971 year bore witness to Puskas as a marvelous leader again that earned him a reputation for fine teaching, whose players found it much like a conference with a wise and understanding counselor and friend. He memorably guided a modest, distant, unheralded and little known Greek club, Panathinaikos, with a very nice ordering of wins obtained over big tournament stalwarts to head into the 1971 ultra-prestigious European Cup Final itself that kindled the people of Greece into raptures, this in spite of being given not much of a chance by many and with the most lukewarm of outlooks.
Ferenc Puskas at the airport right before the European Cup Final versus Benfica in May of 1962. Puskas would go onto to 3 goals in the first half to take a 2-0 lead and a 3-2 advantage at half-time for Real Madrid.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter had seen Puskás play in the 1954 FIFA World Cup Final in Berne. As a eighteen year old Swiss journalist, Blatter was involved throughout the match as a supporting spectator of the Magyars. In homage to Puskás for what he represented on the field and for enduring personal virtues off of it, Blatter founded in 2009 an international recognition award, the FIFA Puskás Award, meant to ensure Puskás' memory would remain powerful as ever for future generations.
In a fulsome life of varied activities as a great player and restaurateur, Puskas later became one of more noted Hungarian managers serving abroad whose journey's took him to five continents in the service of successive patrons, and towards the end of his life became acclaimed consultant and ambassador to the sport until he retired to his native city of Budapest. The daily side of him is all common sense, his characteristic response and feeling to life was a oneness to dedication, resilience, a wayward spontaneity, humor and wit that gave as good as he got, and is one of the most living and appealing figures in recent memory because he expressed with the greatest glow the national dreams of personal freedom in the hearts of his countrymen whom people looked to for statements on football and life; who followed the promptings of his witty light-hearted sparkle to being the man that he was that won a host of friends and admirers the world around. Perhaps it was inevitable that the twentieth century should rouse a Ferenc Puskas — a citadel of virtue, outrageous cheek and expansive gusto. It was wholly appropriate, therefore, that the Nation's Stadium in Budapest finally bear his name in 2002 that does justice to a remarkable life superbly lived and acknowledged, there and elsewhere, the greatest European player of the century.
The head man of the Greek Shamrocks: Ferenc Puskas' gleaming season in management with Panathinaikos, a magical European Cup campaign in 1970-1971 that confounded the pundits. Under Puskas' laissez-faire approach and guidance, his Greek champion club routed Jeunesse Esch 7-1 on aggregate in the first round, then proceeded to defeat Slovan Bratislava 4-2 in the second. In the quarterfinal Puskas' side outlasted English champions Everton 1-1 on the away goal. In the semifinal, the very powerful Yugoslav Red Star Belgrade had his team pinned down 1-4 on goals in the first leg playing away. In a historic match that resonated sensationally in the whole of early 1970s Greece, Puskas' side reversed fortunes with a 4-1 thrilling late revival in their home stand that many could not believe. They faced Ajax in Wembley stadium on June 2, 1971 and gave their much heralded Ajax opponents a classic duel till the end losing only 0-2. Ajax began their run of winning three consecutive European Cup Finals in a row.
Powerhouse that he was, a most noble quality of magnanimity to strangers in need was there during, above and beyond his working active years in football parks where he was wholeheartedly supported all his life. After the 1956 Uprising there were pockets of Hungarian expatriates in every major city in the West. While traveling with Real Madrid and beyond, he became a veritable consulate for members of these communities, ready to lend his support financial or otherwise to those who were most in need that enlarged his character. Wherever people were interested in aid and alleviation, there Puskas went as pleasing charming intercessor that gives us the whole man. Puskas’ story illustrates a remarkable Horatio Alger tale of a self-made man and generous to a fault player rising to the pinnacle of the game from humble origins from those youth games in the late 1930s.
The eminent position of Puskás in the field of football is attested by the many successes that crowned his efforts, first becoming Olympic champion, then a very big accomplishment, then European champion in 1953, World Cup finalist in 1954, in addition to being the top goal scorer in the 20th century at top-flight football in Europe and the century’s top goal scorer in the international game who is united to three ultra-prestigious European Champions Cup (1959, 1960, 1966) titles, 1 acclaimed Intercontinental world title (the 1960 inaugural title match), 11 national championship crowns (5 Hungarian Nemzeti Bajnokság & 6 Spanish Primera División) and 8 top individual Most Valuable Player (MVP) scoring honors. A whole generation will best remember Ferenc Puskas as a master player intimately associated with six prestigious European Cup Final matches. Others will recall him for his gaily illustrated goals and exploits with Honved and Hungary while teamed with Sandor Kocsis, who, both, unwittingly, were prophets of the European Cup that began in 1955 with a celebrated encounter (the 'de facto' European championship final between Wolverhampton and Honved) in December at the Molineux in 1954.
The dean of twentieth century goal scorers, Puskas would retire just as the game was assuming a tone that was becoming more and more conservative and stifling. For the next quarter century of his life when Puskas was no longer producing on the pitch he was now contributing his time as a coach and as an elder statesman also that made his own earlier work live for younger generations. He chose a consecutive journey-work life in management and chose that medium for his last message because he felt obliged to tutor and bring mentoring light to youngsters with a grand coaching tour that took him to far away clubs on five continents as a citizen of the world. The 1970-1971 year bore witness to Puskas as a marvelous leader again that earned him a reputation for fine teaching, whose players found it much like a conference with a wise and understanding counselor and friend. He memorably guided a modest, distant, unheralded and little known Greek club, Panathinaikos, with a very nice ordering of wins obtained over big tournament stalwarts to head into the 1971 ultra-prestigious European Cup Final itself that kindled the people of Greece into raptures, this in spite of being given not much of a chance by many and with the most lukewarm of outlooks.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter had seen Puskás play in the 1954 FIFA World Cup Final in Berne. As a eighteen year old Swiss journalist, Blatter was involved throughout the match as a supporting spectator of the Magyars. In homage to Puskás for what he represented on the field and for enduring personal virtues off of it, Blatter founded in 2009 an international recognition award, the FIFA Puskás Award, meant to ensure Puskás' memory would remain powerful as ever for future generations.
In a fulsome life of varied activities as a great player and restaurateur, Puskas later became one of more noted Hungarian managers serving abroad whose journey's took him to five continents in the service of successive patrons, and towards the end of his life became acclaimed consultant and ambassador to the sport until he retired to his native city of Budapest. The daily side of him is all common sense, his characteristic response and feeling to life was a oneness to dedication, resilience, a wayward spontaneity, humor and wit that gave as good as he got, and is one of the most living and appealing figures in recent memory because he expressed with the greatest glow the national dreams of personal freedom in the hearts of his countrymen whom people looked to for statements on football and life; who followed the promptings of his witty light-hearted sparkle to being the man that he was that won a host of friends and admirers the world around. Perhaps it was inevitable that the twentieth century should rouse a Ferenc Puskas — a citadel of virtue, outrageous cheek and expansive gusto. It was wholly appropriate, therefore, that the Nation's Stadium in Budapest finally bear his name in 2002 that does justice to a remarkable life superbly lived and acknowledged, there and elsewhere, the greatest European player of the century.
The head man of the Greek Shamrocks: Ferenc Puskas' gleaming season in management with Panathinaikos, a magical European Cup campaign in 1970-1971 that confounded the pundits. Under Puskas' laissez-faire approach and guidance, his Greek champion club routed Jeunesse Esch 7-1 on aggregate in the first round, then proceeded to defeat Slovan Bratislava 4-2 in the second. In the quarterfinal Puskas' side outlasted English champions Everton 1-1 on the away goal. In the semifinal, the very powerful Yugoslav Red Star Belgrade had his team pinned down 1-4 on goals in the first leg playing away. In a historic match that resonated sensationally in the whole of early 1970s Greece, Puskas' side reversed fortunes with a 4-1 thrilling late revival in their home stand that many could not believe. They faced Ajax in Wembley stadium on June 2, 1971 and gave their much heralded Ajax opponents a classic duel till the end losing only 0-2. Ajax began their run of winning three consecutive European Cup Finals in a row.
Nice win. Congrats!
