Puskás' Hungary debut 75 years ago could have been much different

(photo: the Hungary and Austria teams after their match at Üllői út on 20th August 1945 - Puskás is in the bottom row, fourth from the right in the dark, cherry-red shirt)

Two weeks previously, Puskás had been on tour in Yugoslavia with his best friend at the time, Cucu Bozsik, who would later join him in the all-conquering Magical Magyars lineup of the early and mid-1950s, as part of the Hungarian Youth Association's football squad led by Tibor Gallowich which played three matches in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Szabadka (also known as Subotica), winning the first 1-0, the second 3-0 (Puskás scoring the second goal) and the final fixture 2-0. Therefore, Puskás would surely have viewed a possible full international debut against Yugoslavia on St Stephen's Day, 20th August, in a particularly confident light.

Hungary's 'Népsport' newspaper was full of anticipation at the national football team's first two prospective fixtures following the end of the Second World War, versus Austria on 19th August (in addition to which a 'B' international would be played in Vienna on the same day) and then against Yugoslavia on 20th August 1945, the latter only having been a late addition to Hungary's '1st National Sports Days' programme of activities following the Balkan state's offer to travel to Budapest.

Possible team lineups were feverishly speculated upon, mention was made of Hungary's and Yugoslavia's burgeoning sporting friendship and adverts offering tickets for the match were highly visible. That was until 17th August, just three days before the planned fixture, when a telegram was received from Yugoslavia stating that their footballers couldn't travel due to technical reasons and that there hadn't been enough time to gather together the squad and arrive in Budapest before the game, but that they'd happily agree to a match between the two countries the following month.

Immediately, MLSZ turned to the Austrian FA's president Dr Zanki and the two parties soon agreed that the Yugoslavia fixture could be replaced by a second match in two days between the old rivals of Hungary and Austria at Üllői út, home of famous Budapest club Ferencvárosi TC. As it turned out, both matches turned out to be causes of celebration for the hosts, goals from Ferenc Rudas and Gyula Zsengellér giving them a 2-0 victory in front of an estimated 40,000 spectators in the first game, and a 5-2 success following just 24 hours later. That latter triumph was of course Ferenc Puskás' debut, one he marked with a 12th-minute goal which also became the first goal that legendary radio broadcaster and future MLSZ President and FIFA ExCo member György Szepesi commmentated on.

It's perhaps a matter of debate whether the 18 year-old Puskás would have made his Hungary debut that month had Yugoslavia's football leadership not proposed the addition of a second fixture to Hungary's schedule, or indeed if they had provided the opposition instead of Austria. What is certain though is that their intervention eventually gave Hungary head coach Tibor Gallowich the freedom to experiment in the second fixture and therefore launch an international career for Puskás which would produce 84 goals in 89 games (85 for Hungary and 4 for Spain), a world goalscoring record which would only be broken more than half a century later.