A Deserving Stage for a Hungarian and Spanish Hero
One of sports’ more touching moments occurred last week in Budapest, where Hungary and Spain played to a 1-1 tie in a game that was, as much as anything, a tribute to a man who had played for both countries.
Ferenc Puskas, the greatest of the “Magical Magyars” of the 1950s, did a lap of honor in a motorized wheelchair before the game. Now 75 and hospitalized for the last two years, Puskas was nonetheless on hand to see the former Nepstadion renamed in his honor.
Puskas had played there for Hungary against Sweden when the stadium was inaugurated in 1953. He and his fellow national team players had even been photographed there during its construction.
The Hungarians, with Puskas as their centerpiece, were the dominant team of the 1950s. They won the gold medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics--with Puskas scoring one of the goals in a 2-0 victory over Yugoslavia in the final--and went on a 32-game unbeaten streak that included momentous 6-3 and 7-1 victories over England.
It all came to a sad end when Hungary was upset, 3-2, by West Germany in the 1954 World Cup final in Berne, Switzerland. Two years later, the Soviet tanks rolled in to crush the Hungarian uprising, after which a disillusioned Puskas moved to Spain.
He had scored 84 goals in 85 games for his country and 154 in 179 games for his club, Kispest/Honved, which he helped to five titles in seven seasons after making his debut at 15. But even more marvelous achievements awaited him in Spain.
There, Puskas won five Spanish championships and five European Cups with Real Madrid.
He scored four goals in the team’s 7-3 demolition of Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt before 135,000 fans in Glasgow, Scotland, in the 1960 European Cup final that still is regarded as one of the sport’s greatest games.
Along the way, Puskas, as a dual citizen, also played four times for Spain, but his heart remained in Hungary and when the no-longer-communist government invited him to return home in 1990, he accepted.
Naming the national stadium in honor of its greatest player was the most fitting tribute Hungary could bestow and for Puskas to be there in person made for an even more special evening.
One for the Books
Manchester United midfielder and England’s captain David Beckham has signed a multimillion-dollar book deal with HarperCollins for an autobiography to be published in the fall of 2003.
“This will be my first real autobiography,” said Beckham, 27, ignoring that only two years ago “David Beckham: My World” was on the bookshelves. “I reckon I’ve had a pretty interesting career so far, and I’m looking forward to telling my story in my own words for the first time.”
The Guardian, for one, is unimpressed. The Manchester newspaper reported that Beckham’s “squeaky voice is matched only by his squeaky clean private life.”
Perhaps HarperCollins should have allowed Beckham’s Spice Girl wife, Victoria, to pocket the reported $3-million rights fee and tell the inside story.
Better yet would have been a new Puskas biography.
It’s Just Criminal
Stephen Akiga, Nigeria’s Minister for Sport, has an interesting way of explaining why his crime-ridden country should stage the World Cup in 2010.
“South Africa is not more crime-free than we are,” he said. “I used to be Minister for Police Affairs, so I can see it from both sides.”
Akiga might have a point. South Africa’s crime problem extends all the way to Irvin Khoza, the man who heads its bid committee to host the 2010 world championship series.
Khoza, who is also vice president of the country’s soccer federation as well as its professional league, was arrested recently on tax evasion charges. That investigation brought to light earlier convictions for insurance fraud and an arrest for drug possession, and also disclosed Khoza’s ties to drug traffickers.
The idea of the World Cup going to Africa grows more ludicrous by the day.
Inscrutable United
The English Premier League is hugely popular in Asia, with clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool counting fans in the millions, thanks to television coverage of their games.
Now, Newcastle United has taken that interest a step further.
The club has applied to the China and Hong Kong soccer federations for permission to enter a team in the Chinese League.
It would be known as Hong Kong United, would play at the former English colony’s Happy Valley stadium and would feature a mix of European and Chinese players.
The team from the northeast of England, coached by former England coach Bobby Robson and featuring former England striker Alan Shearer, already has formed a close alliance with the Chinese league club Dalian Shide. “Our name is very big in China,” Freddy Shepherd, Newcastle’s chairman, told the Guardian. “The Far East is a fantastic market waiting to be tapped. We aim to be at the forefront with our slogan: ‘North East 2 Far East.’ ”
Then again, maybe not.
Athens 2004
Soccer fans will not necessarily have to brave the chaos that will be Athens in 2004 because the Olympic men’s and women’s soccer tournaments will also be played in four other Greek cities.
Three of them are Patras, Thessalonika and Volos.
Perhaps the most intriguing venue is Iraklion on the island of Crete.
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*--* Stepping Up When Olimpia of Paraguay won the Copa Libertadores earlier this month, the victory did more than give the century-old club a third South American championship, it put Coach Nery Alberto Pumpido into some elite company. Pumpido, who won the World Cup as Argentina’s goalkeeper in 1978, became only the sixth person to win the Copa Libertadores both as a player and as a coach. The list: Name Won as Player Won as Coach Humberto Maschio Racing Club 1967 Independiente 1973 Roberto Ferreiro Independiente 1964, ’65 Independiente 1974 Luis Cubilla Penarol 1960, ‘61, Nacional ’71 Olimpia 1979, ’90 Juan Martin Nacional 1971 Nacional 1980 Mujica Jose Omar Independiente 1972 Independiente 1984 Pastoriza Nery Alberto River Plate 1986 Olimpia 2002 Pumpido
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