Magical Magyars

David Bailey

Description

Magical Magyars tells the remarkable story of the legendary Hungarian football team of the 50s, a side whose breathtaking technical skills and passing-and-movement style of play changed the very way the sport was played. Author David Bailey traces the team's origins and details how communist Hungary, a tiny nation impoverished and subjugated by one of the most brutal Stalinist regimes in the Soviet empire, was able to produce a football team that was the envy of the sporting world, and so very nearly world champions. Captained by the genius that was Ferenc Puskas, the Magical Magyars walked a tightrope between being the regime's darlings and providing the beleaguered Hungarian people with a sense of national pride during their darkest days. The team enthralled, dominated and revolutionised world football - until its own demise was brought about by a revolution of a different kind. Weaving in threads of friendship and betrayal, tactics and politics, the quest for glory and upheaval, here is a football story quite unlike any other.

Sujets

• Hungría
• Hungary
• Hongrie

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 22 juillet 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785315886
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2019
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
David Bailey, 2019
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Contents
Introduction
When Hungary s football history is told, Jimmy Hogan s name should be written in gold
The game boils down to the three B s . Brains, Ball control and Balance
Sebes was a real narrow-minded, iron-fisted communist
Little money, little football. Big money, big football
The time of sport being funded by patrons is over
They both wanted things their own way - they were huge rivals
Football should be played foremostly with the brain
I felt like I was in a madhouse and that nothing and nobody made any sense
The play of the others would range between brilliant and mediocre
When we arrived in England in 1953, we were welcomed with a friendliness that touched us deeply
Best team I ever played against? Hungary in 1953
105,000 people watching the match at Wembley
The Battle of Berne
It is not possible to stop the Hungarian attack but theirs is a defence that lets in goals
Traitors!
After the Wolves v Honv d match we held a post-match dinner
Two friends are sitting in a bar
Had Hungary won the 1954 World Cup there wouldn t have been a revolution
I didn t leave Hungary, I just didn t come back
Who is this FIFA to tell me what to do in my own country?
You must shoot immediately shoot, shoot and shoot again!
I was where I had to be. I did what I had to do
Appendix 1: Unbeaten
Appendix 2: Epilogue
Endnotes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
In memory of Alan and Jenny Bailey
Introduction
The match of the century
F ROM the moment they stepped out on to the pitch, it was evident that they were something very different. They were lithe, confident, daring to juggle the match ball - quite unlike the other foreign teams, who were always clearly intimidated by the sheer size and passion of the home crowd. The kit the visitors wore was sleek: their cherry-red shirts V-necked and tight-fitting, their shorts cut above the thigh and boots cut below the ankle. In comparison, the England team looked suddenly old-fashioned in bulky, collared shirts, knee-length shorts and cumbersome boots, like workhorses trudging next to thoroughbreds. London s Empire Stadium was cold, wet and packed solid. Wembley being full was nothing unusual in those days before football matches were televised live, but what was remarkable was the speed at which tickets had sold out: weeks beforehand and in a matter of hours; even more so considering the match was held on a workday afternoon, meaning the majority of the punters had had to forsake a day s pay to be there.
Why the massive interest? Well, Hungary were the first nation from behind the Iron Curtain to visit England, and were an enemy of sorts, having sided against Britain in both world wars, and circa 1953 the Cold War was getting colder. There was intrigue: Hungary were a team made up of soldiers, policemen; one, Major Bozsik, was even a member of parliament. There was interest in Major Pusk s, one of the world s greatest players. And there was the no small matter of Hungary being the current Olympic champions and maintaining a three-year, 24-match undefeated run.
But none of this overly concerned the English. The Hungarians may have had Pusk s, but he wasn t a patch on the world s best player, Stanley Matthews. Hungary s Olympic gold? An amateur tournament, easy to win when you fielded a team of professional shamateurs as had the Hungarians. And Hungary s unbeaten run? Admittedly impressive, but what was it to England remaining unbeaten at home to non-British opponents? Within 45 seconds, Hungary took the lead, and what followed was a lesson from the pupils that the masters never forgot. The 6-3 scoreline was one that didn t do the Hungarians justice. They were unlucky not to score ten. The English lucky to snatch three. The Wembley crowd were stunned, not knowing whether to cry or applaud. Their England, the sport s very inventors, had been demolished, humiliated even, on their own hallowed turf, their cherished unbeaten record rudely smashed. But at the same time those present had witnessed the future of football. The Hungarians had brought with them a style of play never seen before in Britain. Short passing, long passing, movement, interchanging, control, backwards, forwards, sideways.
The embarrassed masters, claiming an off-day, demanded the pupils give them a rematch, which the Hungarians duly did five months later in Budapest. This time, in front of their own, they were even more impressive, beating England 7-1: a defeat that remains England s heaviest ever. The Hungarians dubbed their boys the Golden Team - the English press, waxing a little more lyrical, the Magical Magyars .
Over 50 years later, and this Englishman was living in Budapest. Never one to miss a natter about football, the conversation often turned to Hungary s historic victories over England. Now, while I knew of both defeats, it was not something that English football history books tended to dwell upon. I knew enough of the England team (Alf Ramsey, Billy Wright and Matthews), but of the Hungarians, except for Pusk s, I knew almost nothing other than that they were an exceptional team that had taught England a lesson. I can recall one Hungarian friend genuinely disbelieving that I, as a football obsessive, knew nothing of Sebes, Hidegkuti, L r nt, Bozsik, Czibor, Kocsis, Kubala, B la Guttmann well, I d heard of Guttmann, but that was because of his success in coaching Benfica - I didn t realise he was Hungarian. And the rest I knew of - vaguely - were they any good? I thought Hungary were a one-man team led by a Galloping Major?
Apparently not. Apparently (and my friend was neither the first nor last Magyar to tell me this) the Pusk s-captained Hungarian team of the 1950s were, in their time, the greatest football side in the world bar none. And not just great, but revolutionary with it, changing the very way the sport was played. The only reason why they didn t prove that they were the best team in the world was that dark forces didn t want a communist nation winning the World Cup - they were robbed of it in the last minute of the 1954 final against West Germany by a corrupted referee, an Englishman no less!
My interest piqued, I began searching for a definitive book that explained to me not just what the team achieved but how ? How on earth had this tiny and at times troubled nation (at 74th in FIFA s world rankings at the time of my search 1 ) ever managed to produce a team that had revolutionised football? But no such book in the English language existed, so I sought one in Hungarian, with a mind to translating the version which told the story in full. But here was the stumbling block: while there are books aplenty in the Hungarian language on the team s achievements and exploits, the books authors take it for granted that their readers know the participants, background and history. I didn t. And as I read, questions led to more questions, and what emerged was a gripping tale of friendship, betrayal, greed, death and ultimately revolution, set against and aided by the most brutal Stalinist regime in the entire Soviet bloc. A regime that imprisoned and murdered more of its own people than any other Soviet satellite, and that is saying something. This was no ordinary football team riding their luck with good players and timing; this was the culmination of decades of investment and preparation. It just so happened that it all came to fruition during Hungary s darkest days, as did the team s abrupt, chaotic and angry end.
And while my friend was wrong about the World Cup Final referee being corrupt, he was correct that Pusk s was the Maradona, Messi or Ronaldo of his day, and for a brief period in the 1950s the Magical Magyars were the greatest football team in the world; and, more than this, they really did revolutionise the game. I found their story fascinating. I hope you do too.
Note: Where a quotation has been translated from Hungarian, this is indicated by in the endnote.
CHAPTER 1
When Hungary s football history is told, Jimmy Hogan s name should be written in gold.
Guszt v Sebes
T HE origins of the ancient Hungarians are much debated, but the accepted theory is that they stemmed 6,000 years ago from tribes who lived in Russia s Ural Mountains on Europe s border with Asia.
By AD 463, these proto-Hungarians had migrated south-west into the lands of the Turkic Empire (modern-day Ukraine), and, by interbreeding with Turks and the Mongol followers of Attila the Hun, burgeoned from a simple nomadic farming people into a 400,000-strong tribe. They were a formidable fighting force, renowned for their horsemanship and the accuracy of their arrows, and thus called the Onogurs : in ancient Turkish, on meaning ten and ogur meaning arrow .
In the ninth century, one of the Onogurs largest sub-tribes, the Megyers, migrated further westwards, settling upon a fertile terrain they named Magyarorsz g - Magyarland . The term Hungary is derived from Hungaras , the Latin spelling of Onogurs .
After five centuries of relative peace under the rule of a succession of Magyar kings, in the m