Ferenc Puskas

Hungarian football legend who led his side to the historic 6-3 thrashing of England at Wembley in 1953

Brian Glanville

The remarkable footballing career of Ferenc Puskas, who has died aged 79 in Budapest, falls into two parts. The first was as the outstanding captain of a remarkable Hungarian team - once called "the best team in the world" by England's Billy Wright - which he led to the World Cup finals of 1954. The second was as a star of Real Madrid from 1958 to 1966.

The watershed was the Hungarian revolution of 1956 when, by chance, Puskas and other Hungarian internationals were on tour with Honved, the army club into which most of them had been drafted. Puskas, possessed of a left foot of astonishing power, and his team-mates, Sandor Kocsis and Zoltan Czibor, all found their way to Spain. Puskas joined Real, with the other two joining Barcelona.

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Puskas was born in Budapest and brought up in the nearby country town of Kispest. The son of a footballer, he kicked a ball about in the streets with, among others, the future Hungary right-half, Josef Bozsik, and admired such foreign stars as Charlie Buchan, Ted Drake and Spain's celebrated goalkeeper, Ricardo Zamora. Nicknamed "Ocsi" (little brother), Puskas was coached at the Kispest club by Nandor Szucs and made his debut in November 1943 against the then league leaders, Nagyvared.

An inside-left from the beginning, Puskas perfected his ball skills by endlessly juggling with a tennis ball. At 18 he won the first of his 84 caps for Hungary, scoring the first of his 83 goals. When Kispest was swallowed up by Honved, Puskas was commissioned in the army - hence his eventual nickname, the Galloping Major, though like most such army footballers, he was seldom to be seen on parade.

For some years, a brilliant Hungarian team was kept under wraps behind the Iron Curtain, but in the summer of 1952 it finally emerged to waltz through the Olympic football tournament in Budapest. They beat Yugoslavia 2-0 in the final and although Puskas missed a penalty, he atoned by scoring in open play.

In May 1953 Hungary took part in the first game to be played in the new Olympic stadium in Rome with a superb performance, beating Italy 3-0. The following November, unforgettably, they came to London and thrashed England 6-3, becoming the first foreign team to beat England on English soil. Puskas scored two of the goals, one coming when he coolly pulled the ball back with the sole of his boot so that, in the words of Geoffrey Green in the Times, the English captain Billy Wright rushed past him "like a fire engine going to the wrong fire".

Inevitably, Hungary were favourites to win the World Cup in Switzerland in June 1954. They might have done so had Puskas, in the opening 8-3 win over West Germany, not been injured in a tackle by the German centre-half, Werner Liebrich. This might have been the kick that won West Germany the cup final.

Hungary regrouped to great effect but when the team eventually reached the final, in Berne, Puskas insisted he should play. He also, reportedly, demanded that the right winger, Budai, be dropped. In the event, Puskas did not look fully fit. Even so, with Hungary 3-2 behind after squandering a 2-0 lead, he raced through the opposing defence to score what looked like a perfectly good goal. But the Welsh linesman, Mervyn Griffiths, waved his flag and the English referee, Bill Ling, ruled Puskas offside. He remained convinced that he was not.

During his years with Real Madrid, an increasingly tubby but still marvellously effective Puskas struck up a famous partnership with the Argentine centre-forward, the domineering Alfredo Di Stefano. Puskas became the leading Spanish goalscorer four times, in 1960, 1961, 1963 and 1964. Both he and Di Stefano triumphed in the European Cup final of 1960 in Hampden Park, Glasgow, where Eintracht Frankfurt were demolished 7-3. Puskas scored four goals, Di Stefano three. Two years later, Puskas would get another three in the European Cup final in Amsterdam against Benfica, and still finish on the losing side.

Benfica won 5-3, but the goal Puskas scored when Di Stefano cleverly put him through from the halfway line was as good as any of those scored that night. It was reported that at the end of the match, in a symbolic gesture, Puskas took off his jersey and gave it to Eusebio, the young Mozambique inside-right whose thunderous right foot was the equal of Puskas's left. But Puskas subsequently denied that he had presented his shirt to anybody.

Later that summer, he played for Spain in the World Cup finals in Chile, where he was used in three games at centre-forward. He did not enjoy it, lamenting happier days with Real and Hungary when goals were easier to come by. I have an engaging memory of him when Chile won third place in Santiago. With the Chilean fans celebrating in the streets of the capital, Puskas was to be glimpsed standing in a doorway, munching monkey nuts, wearing that Budapest urchin grin which would never desert him.

The following year, he returned with distinction to Wembley to play for the Fifa XI which met England, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Football Association. He came on as a substitute for Eusebio.

Still capable of scoring five goals against Holland's Feyenoord as late as 1965, he retired the following year and went to Canada to coach Vancouver. It was not a positive experience. He was said to have demoralised the club's goalkeepers with the power of his shooting.

Subsequently he became manager of Panathinaikos of Athens, and got them to Wembley for the European Cup final of 1971, which they lost to Ajax.

After the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, Puskas returned to live in Budapest. In 1999 he was voted the sixth best player of the 20th century, after Pele, Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Alfredo Di Stefano and Diego Maradona.

He had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for some years. He is survived by his wife, Erzsebet, and a daughter, Aniko.

· Ferenc Puskas, footballer, born April 2 1927; died November 17 2006

Taken from the Guardian/Observer