That Hungarian team were part timers in name only, because the political system at the time wouldn't allow professionalism. Players were given 'jobs' by the major institutions that owned the clubs in a system similar to the 'shamateurism' that occurred in English cricket and rugby up to that period
Two big games on tonight. Dundalk vs F H Hafnarfjordui, and Olimpija Ljubljana vs A S Trecin I would love to hear Joe kinear trying to read the results out !
That was the lame excuse that went the rounds after they'd won (noticeably 'after'). It was claimed that they were all in the forces and were allowed to train full time. But if you examine the actual occupations it becomes somewhat less likely to be true. I'll give you the list : Gyula Grosics (goalkeeper) - clerk Jeno Buzanszky (right back) - accountant Gyula Lorant (left back) - civil servant Mihaly Lantos (right half) - railwayman Jozsef Bozsik (centre half) - member of parliament Jozsef Zakarias (left half) - tool maker Laszlo Budai (outside right) - clerk Sandor Kocsis (inside right) - army officer Nandor Hidegkuti (centre forward) - clerical worker Ferenc Puskas (inside left) - army major Zoltan Czibor (civil servant) True, most, if not all of them, would be working in state owned or state controlled industries - that's the nature of a communist state. But full time training in some of those jobs is surely tripe. In fact, only two of them were in the forces. We were making excuses for a shock defeat, that's all. Mind you, at least it was all possible. We didn't have any excuses against Iceland.
Most of them played for Kispest Honved, only a small number -notably Hidegkuti who played for MTK- didn't. Honved was the team of the army -Honved means soldier- and they were deliberately gathered together by Gustav Sebes, coach of Honved and the national team, so that he could have them all in one place as a training camp for success in the 1952 Olympics. All of those that came to Honved after this were conscripted into the army and therefore had army ranks, even Boszik was officially an army officer despite having been at the club before the ministry of defence takeover. It just so happened that he was also a member of the Communist party and a deputy in parliament and that caused him problems when the major Hungarian clubs went on extended tours following the 1956 uprising. I'm not surprised excuses needed to be found here following the 1953 defeat though- it shouldn't have been a shock though, the Hungarian team had been playing well for a while and their top clubs had been touring western Europe since the late 40s. Typical of the English to be too full of their own footballing self-importance to realise they were falling behind everyone else. It repeats itself at every major tournament.
Sorry mate, but we disagree on the vision of Sebes.. In fact, Sebes had studied the two most successful teams of the 1930s (Austria and Italy) and concluded from them that the best international teams were derived from two or three clubs. So he chose his Hungary team from Honved and MTK (the latter of which changed their name several times through the 1950s, and were known as Red Banner when they played at Roker - I was there, and still have the match programme somewhere in my wardrobe). So Sebes 'socialist' football is greatly over-rated. Austria and Italy had both done it before. And at precisely the same time (1953) the Scottish FA were discussing a perfectly natural identical idea - the entire Rangers 'Iron Curtain' defence plus Hibernian's 'Famous Five' attack, not through any 'socialist' football ideas, but simply because that's where the best players had been drawn together. It was imperfect in both cases. The Hungarian player from another team who couldn't be ignored was right back, Jeno Buzansky of Dorogi 'Miners', whereas in Scotland, Eddie Turnbull of Hibs was omitted for Billy Steel of Dundee. So Sebes did, as you say, play seven Honved players plus three from MTK, and one other. But there was little there that wasn't happening elsewhere, notably in Scotland. And to say that meant a fake semi-professional approach in Hungary just has no definite foundation.
63 in 74 is the only comment Brian Clough will ever need. Very few of the great strikers were great all-round players, but a striker is there to strike. Often. And Cloughie did it.
Cracking photo, you can imagine what the modern day footballer would be doing rather than reading. Be on the phone with a set of head phones listening to some form of trashy music more likely.
I totally agree that Sebes based his ideas on the Austrian Wunderteam- all the histories of Hungarian football are in agreement on that point. But the mechanics of the Communist regime allowed him to gather players together in one place. Its a fact -not my opinion- that players were conscripted in to the army to play for Honved. Several came from MTK, why Hidegkuti was allowed to remain I don't know. Its also a fact that in the Soviet Union and other countries under Soviet influence, such as Hungary, teams were run by various institutions to create a sense of unity amongst workers (Torpedo Moscow was run by the ZIL car plant; Lokomotiv Moscow by the Soviet Railways; Shakhtar Donetsk as a team for miners; any team with the prefix 'Dynamo' by the secret police) but players weren't allowed to be professional, so they were given other 'occupations', the most common being physical education instructor, serviceman, or student, under the sponsorship of a trade union, or other body, sports club, so that they could spend most of their time in training. You can find all this in any history book on the subject. So while the Hungary team of 1953 weren't strictly professionals, they certainly weren't part timers.
Baffles me how the hell relic and norton have this knowledge on such obscure teams. Highly interesting though.
I had a lovely pie for my dinner yesterday. Steak & kidney Pukka pie. Loads of big chunks of meat & lots of gravy. ****ing lush.
We should do a thread... that sounds incredible, I'm starving mind so I'd probably eat anything. Isn't all meat just muscle?
What's to eat on the head? I thought that was the bits that you dry out and feed to dogs as 'treats'?
