Puskás honoured at his field of dreams - FIFA BALLON D'OR
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For young football fans, the name Ferenc Puskás may only come to prominence once a year: at the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala. Yet it is for good reason that the FIFA Puskás Award, recognising the year’s best goal and bestowed on the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, bears the name of this legendary figure.
After all, while stats – remarkable in themselves - confirm Puskás as one of the game’s great goalscorers, he also earned renown as a scorer of truly great goals. Hungary team-mate Nandor Hidegkuti spoke of him “scoring countless after dribbling past opponents within spaces that didn’t exist”, while Real Madrid colleague Raymond Kopa remembered Puskás “scaring the hell out of goalkeepers from the 30- to 35-metre range”.
His prolificacy and penchant for the spectacular were rarely more evident than on 18 May 1960, when he scored four times – an enduring record for a European final – as Real Madrid beat Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 in a fabled encounter.
Glasgow’s Hampden Park was the venue for that masterclass, and it was at Scotland’s national stadium that Puskás yesterday received a fresh honour. It came in the unveiling of a plaque recognising his unsurpassed achievements in that European Cup final, and lauding him as “the greatest goalscorer of the 20th century”, in Hampden’s Scottish National Football Museum.
For György Szöllösi, friend of the Puskás family, director of the Puskás Institute and author of a new biography on the most magical of Magyars, the venue was especially poignant. “The final here at Hampden was without doubt the greatest moment of his club career,” said Szöllösi, who also showcased various items from Puskás’s personal collection, including a mini-replica of the European Cup trophy presented to him by UEFA. “It was also here that he made his final trip abroad to attend the 2002 UEFA Champions League final with other members of that great Madrid team. So Hampden was a special place for him.”
"The final here at Hampden was without doubt the greatest moment of his club career."
György Szöllösi
Szöllösi spoke at the unveiling alongside Hungarian and Scottish dignitaries, and took part in a Q&A at which Puskás’s contribution to the beautiful game was discussed. His legacy, said Archie Macpherson, an esteemed Scottish commentator who attended that famous 1960 final, was the ability to inspire. “Young players are not attracted to football by systems or theory, but by personalities; people they can imitate, copy and try to exceed,” said Macpherson. “That’s why we’ll always need players like Puskás.”
Fortunately, football does continue to produce superstars and moments of brilliance, and the latter will again be celebrated in January when the FIFA Puskás Award is presented for a seventh time. For Szöllösi and members of the Puskás family, all closely involved at the award’s instigation, it remains of great significance.
“For a new generation, this award is very important in making them aware of what Puskás gave to football,” he told FIFA.com. “The FIFA Puskás Award is undoubtedly a very trendy thing and helps keeps Ferenc’s name alive year after year. It’s also fantastic that a direct link is maintained because, every year, FIFA invites two members from the Puskás family to attend the Gala.
“I think what tells the story of the importance of this award is when you see guys like Ronaldo and Zlatan – cool guys who have won so much – clearly so excited to have won it. I’ve been lucky enough to be there at the Gala for each of the six times it has been awarded, and the first time – when it was presented by Erzsébet, Ferenc Puskás’s wife – was very special.
“Ronaldo won it that year and she was extremely happy to be able to hand it over to a Real Madrid player. Sadly, she passed away recently, but she was always interested in the award and said publicly last year that she was supporting James Rodriguez. As a Real Madrid No10 [Puskás’s treasured shirt], he was the only choice for her.”
The focus will soon turn to Rodriguez’s successor, with ten nominated goals set to be unveiled in November. That list will then be cut to three finalists, from which FIFA.com users will vote for a goal deserving of the award and worthy of the man whose name it bears.