Galloping Major

How big was the football genius of Ferenc Puskas? Of course, there can be no objective opinion on this matter. Moreover, one cannot give an assessment based only on frames of video chronicle. But, in my opinion, Ferenc Puskas and Johan Cruyff are the two most important figures in the history of European football.

And the matter is not only in the technical equipment of the Hungarian, others owned it. And not even in his key role in two memorable matches on British soil - in the victory of the Hungarian national team over the British 6: 3 at Wembley in 1953 and the triumph of Real Madrid in a meeting with Frankfurt Eintracht seven years later. The whole point is that Puskash knew very well how best to use remarkable technical abilities in the interests of the team.

Why did the nickname Galloping Major (although what he was doing on the field, can hardly be called a gallop, and before the nickname appeared there were only lieutenant epaulets on it) so it went to him? Because he was a commander who promptly led his wards to the goal. “A good player who owns the ball must have three recipients,” is a common truth through the mouth of his national team partner, defender Jeno Buzanski. “Puskas always saw at least five.”

The teammates could complain that Pushkash had an influence on the coaches, and on the field kept showing his cocky character, but no one ever dared to reproach him with selfishness. In addition to leadership qualities, he also possessed an extraordinary cunning, which was manifested, for example, in his debut season in Real Madrid. Before the final round, he and the notorious obstinist Alfredo Di Stefano together led the championship sniper race. During the match, Puskas had an excellent scoring chance, but instead of sending the ball into the goal, he paused and granted Di Stefano the right, anticipating how much the Argentinean would be demoralized, if he had not won the score. Puskas demonstrated a similar nobility after the famous Champions Cup final of 1960, passing the ball - a prize to the best player of the match - Erwin Steen, who scored two of the three goals of Eintracht against Real Madrid. Puskas scored four.

Some consider the frank “left-legged” a drawback of the Hungarian, but hardly this quality has impoverished his football arsenal. “The blow is delivered with only one foot,” he once said. “Otherwise, flop on your ass.” An illustration of how weakness turned into a strong side is the match with England in 1953. With a score of 2: 1 in favor of the Hungarians, Puskas accepted a serve from the left on the far post. Having lowered the ball to the ground, he showed that he was going to break through with his right. Billy Wright, captain of England, hoped to block the strike, according to the testimony of Jeffrey Green of the Times , as if on fire. But Puskash cleverly returned the ball under the working foot with a polisher trick and, leaving Wright out of work stretched out on the lawn, outwitted the goalkeeper Gil Merrick. “There was a memorial plaque to be erected,” Hungarian radio commentator Györ epesi spoke with dignity, after the match he studied that patch for a long time in front of the goal.

Puskas is sometimes compared to George Best - not least because the Hungarian led a similarly hectic life. The tales of his drunken adventures with Jim Baxter have no numbers. A former Scotland national winger who claimed that Hungarian knew only two words in English - “whiskey” and “pinch”, often told the story of how, once, when he arrived at a party in Drumchepel, on the outskirts of Glasgow, he discovered Pushkash, “ squeezed "dishwasher.

But detrimental addictions of Puskas’s career did not harm, and after two years of disqualification, before coming to Real Madrid in 58, he showed a pattern of self-discipline, losing 18 kg of excess weight. Olympic gold, World Cup silver, five champion titles in Hungary, five highest awards in the Spanish championship, a victory in the Champions Cup, four Pichichi - his regalia can not be compared with Best's much more modest achievements.

Since then, the decline of Hungarian football has only overshadowed the greatness of Puskas. I came to Budapest last month, when the Hungarian team lost to the Maltese, and the country was comforted by the fact that even Puskas, being in the late stages of Alzheimer's disease, did not realize this shame. “He lost his mind,” was the verdict of Gyorgy Karpati, the Olympic champion in water polo, who regularly visited the patient. “It's just a body waiting for the day of its demise.” And the most sentimental wished him to hold out until the next Saturday: November 25 - the day of that memorable victory of the national team over the British. Which is honored far more than the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising.

“We say Hungary - we mean Puskas,” Carpathi summarizes. - If you find yourself in Venezuela, Nepal or Australia and say “Hungary”, you will hear “Pushkash” in response. It speaks for itself. ”