Puskás, Ferenc << PUSH kahs, FEH rents >> (1927-2006), was a Hungarian professional soccer player and coach. Puskás is considered one of the greatest players in soccer history. From the 1940’s into the 1960’s, he starred for professional clubs in Hungary and Spain . His later career was spent with Real Madrid CF, one of soccer’s greatest teams. CF stands for club de fútbol (football club). Soccer is called football in much of the world. Puskás also starred for the powerful Hungarian national team of the 1950’s. Puskás was a striker. A striker is a forward who is principally responsible for scoring, and Puskás was one of the most prolific goal scorers in soccer history. For a discussion of soccer positions and formations, see Soccer (Players and officials) .
Puskás was born Ferenc Purczeld on April 1, 1927, in Budapest , Hungary, and raised in the suburb of Kispest. His father, who was of German ancestry, later Magyarized the family name to Puskás. Magyarization is the adoption of Magyar (Hungarian) culture and language by non-Hungarians. His father was a professional soccer player and coach for Kispest AC, for whom Ferenc first played in 1943. AC stands for athletic club. Puskás debuted for the Hungarian national team in 1945. Shortly thereafter, Hungary came under the control of the Soviet Union .
In 1949, Kispest became the official Hungarian Army team and the team name was changed to Budapest Honvéd (homeland defense). As the Army club, Honvéd took the nation’s best players, and the team soon dominated Hungarian soccer. Puskás and his Honvéd teammates also formed the core of the Hungarian national team, sometimes called the “Golden Team” or the “Magical Magyars” for their success in the early 1950’s. The Hungarians won gold at the 1952 Olympic Games and lost a tough match to West Germany in the 1954 FIFA World Cup final in Switzerland . FIFA stands for Fédération Internationale de Football Association (International Federation of Association Football). FIFA is soccer’s world governing body. In 85 career matches for Hungary, Puskás scored a remarkable 84 goals.
In 1956, Honvéd was playing in the European Cup (an annual club tournament now called the Champions League ) in Spain when the Soviet Union crushed a democratic revolution in Hungary. Puskás and several other players decided not to return to Hungary. Banned for over a year from playing elsewhere, Puskás was eventually allowed to play for Real Madrid in 1958. A powerhouse team, Real had won European Cups in 1956 and 1957. With Puskás, Real won the next three European Cups as well. Puskás led Spain’s top soccer league, La Liga, in scoring four times before his retirement as a player in 1966. Having taken Spanish citizenship, Puskás played for Spain in the 1962 World Cup in Chile .
In 1967, Puskás began a long coaching career that included numerous, mostly brief stops around the world. In 1993, after the return of democracy to Hungary, Puskás returned home, where he led the national team for a short time before retiring from coaching. In 2002, Hungary’s national stadium in Budapest, the Népstadion (People’s Stadium), was renamed Puskás Ferenc Stadion in his honor. Puskás died in Budapest on Nov. 17, 2006.
