Hungary’s Ferenc Puskás inducted into Hall of Fame

Legendary striker for the Hungarian national team and Spanish soccer giants Real Madrid, Ferenc Puskás (1927-2006) has become the fourth inductee in the Goal Hall of Fame that opens this week at the initiative of the renowned football website goal.com.

Based on the votes of over 100.000 readers at the website, Puskás joined other great soccer figures such as Zinedine Zidane of France, Diego Armando Maradona of Argentina and Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) with the fifth name of the inaugural inductees revealed this Friday: another Brazilian, Ronaldo (Luis Nazário de Lima).

The soccer website reminds that the striker began his career with Hungarian club Budapest Honvéd where he scored 352 goals in 341 league appearances, but it was at the Santiago Bernabéu (the stadium of Real Madrid) where he became a footballing icon, inspiring the Spanish club to three European Cup triumphs during his eight-year stay in the Spanish capital between 1958 and 1966.

“Amongst his most memorable displays was a four-goal haul in the famous European Cup final of 1960, in which [Real] Madrid defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3. Puskás also scored in the 1954 World Cup final for Hungary but ended on the losing side against West Germany,” the site adds.

It also quotes recently retired Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson by saying that “he was a special player in his day without question. How that Hungary team didn’t win the 1954 World Cup is beyond me”; and Hungarian national side fellow striker who said that “of all of us, he was the best. He had a sixth sense for soccer! If there were 1,000 solutions, he would pick the 1001st.”