Former Real Madrid and Hungarian soccer great Ferenc Puskas dead at age 79.
Ferenc Puskas, who captained the great Hungarian national team of the 1950s and won three European Cup titles with Real Madrid, died Friday at age 79.
Considered one of the all-time greats of world soccer, Puskas died at 7 a.m. local time at the Kutvolgyi hospital in Budapest due to respiratory and circulatory failure, family spokesman Gyorgy Szollosy said.
Puskas had been hospitalized for six years with Alzheimer's disease and was being treated for a fever and pneumonia in recent days. He had been in intensive care since September.
Nicknamed the "Galloping Major" in reference to his army rank, Puskas scored 84 goals in 85 matches for Hungary between 1945 and 1956. The stocky, left-footed forward guided the "Magical Magyars" to an Olympic gold medal in 1952 and to the final of the 1954 World Cup, where they lost to West Germany.
Puskas also spent part of 1968 in Canada, coaching the Vancouver Royals of the North American Soccer League.
One night in Toronto that summer, he teamed with another Hungarian soccer great, Ladislav Kubala in a friendly soccer match. Kubala was coach of the Toronto Falcons at the time.
Puskas starred in two of the most famous games in European soccer history - scoring twice in Hungary's stunning 6-3 upset over England at Wembley Stadium in 1953, and scoring four goals in Real Madrid's 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup final.
"There is not one Hungarian who would be left untouched by the death of Ferenc Puskas," Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said in a statement. "The 20th century's most well-known Hungarian has died. ... The nation's striker is gone."
To millions of fans in Hungary, Puskas was known simply as "Ocsi" or "little brother."
"Of all of us, he was the best," the late Nandor Hidegkuti, a teammate on the legendary Hungarian national side, said at Puskas' 70th birthday party in 1997. "He had a seventh sense for soccer - if there were 1,000 solutions, he'd pick the 1001st."
In 1999, Puskas was voted the sixth-best player of the 20th century, behind Pele, Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Alfredo Di Stefano and Diego Maradona.
According to the German-based International Federation of Football History and Statistics, Puskas was the world's third-most successful national championship player.
Studying records going back to 1888, the Federation listed the top scorers in national championships and Puskas scored 511 goals in 533 games between 1943 and 1966, behind only Pele and Josef Bican.
Puskas was born Ferenc Purczeld on April 2, 1927, in Kispest, a working-class district in Budapest.
He was 10 when his father, himself a central defender for Kispest, changed the family name to Puskas.
"When I was a kid I liked to kick rocks in the street, always making sure I'd hit a tree or another rock. It was murder on my shoes, but great training," Puskas wrote in an article for London's Daily Mirror after Hungary's memorable victory over England.
Puskas made his professional debut with Kispest on Dec. 6, 1943, at the age of 16.
Although Hungary won gold at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, its greatest moment came on Nov. 23, 1953, when the "Golden Team" beat England for the host nation's first home defeat by a non-British opponent.
"It was like racehorses against carthorses," England winger Tom Finney said. "They were the greatest national side I played against, a wonderful team to watch with tactics we'd never seen before."
Puskas said: "We should have won by more, but we had never played against the Brits before."
When the teams met again in Budapest in 1954, Puskas scored two more goals as Hungary won 7-1.
Hungary was heavily favoured to win the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland. But Puskas wasn't fully fit and the Germans, led by Fritz Walter, won 3-2, despite trailing 2-0 at halftime.
"We had an off day," Puskas, never known for using too many words, remarked years later.
Several Italian club teams tried to lure Puskas in 1947, but the offer was turned down.
"I wouldn't leave my parents, my friends, or Kispest for anything," he said at the time.
Under communism, Puskas was given the rank of major when the Kispest team was renamed Honved (Soldier) and, formally, attached to the Hungarian army.
But Puskas was never in the army as such and when given a gun to shoot, "I managed to hit the air," he said.
The national team was on tour at the time of Hungary's 1956 revolution and Puskas chose not to return when the uprising was crushed by the Soviets.
He defected to Spain and played for Real Madrid from 1958-66, endearing himself to fans who called him "Pancho." Although he was past 30, overweight and thought to be past his prime, he helped the club win five straight Spanish league titles during that time.
Puskas was part of the squad which won the European Cup in 1959, 1960 and 1966. He missed the 1959 and 1966 finals through injury but collected winners' medals after playing in earlier rounds.
Puskas was the Spanish league's top scorer four times, netting 512 goals in 528 games for Madrid.
"His playing style revolutionized Spanish sport," wrote Spanish sports commentator Andres Merce Varela. Real Madrid teammate and fellow all-time great Alfredo di Stefano simply called him a "super talent."
"The Real Madrid family feels deep sadness over the passing of one of its greatest legends," the team said in a statement Friday, adding that Puskas "is considered the best goal-scorer of the 20th century and one of the best soccer players in history."
Puskas took Spanish citizenship and played for the Spain national side four times, including at the 1962 World Cup. He retired in 1967 at age 39.
Back in Hungary, Puskas was charged with treason in absentia and stripped of his military rank. It was restored after the collapse of communism and he was even promoted to colonel in 1992, a year after he resettled in Hungary.
Puskas went into coaching and won two Greek championships with Panathinaikos, which he also guided to the final of the 1971 European Cup. He also had coaching spells at Real Murcia and AEK Athens, among others, and a four-game stint as Hungary coach in 1993.
The Budapest stadium was renamed Ferenc Puskas Stadion in 2002.
Puskas is survived by his wife, Erzsebet, and a daughter, Aniko. Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.
Valdo 
Enrique Corrales 
