Former Hungarian midfield maestro Lajos Détári turns 57 today

Lajos Détári is fondly remembered by Hungarian football lovers as arguably one of the country's most recent truly world-class players, evidently an estimation which was shared by Greek giants Olympiakos, who reputedly broke the world transfer record to sign Détári from German club Eintracht Frankfurt in 1988 for a fee allegedly worth six million pounds. 

By this point, Détári had already won the Hungarian league title three times and the Hungarian Cup once with Budapesti Honvéd, the club he made his debut for in adult football and for whom he played for seven years before a move to Frankfurt, where he scored the winner in the West German Cup final in his only season. 

Détári also won the Greek Cup in his time at Olympiakos, where he averaged more than a goal every two games, before moves to Italy with Bologna, Ancona and Genoa, Switzerland with Neuchâtel Xamax and Austria with VSE St Polten. Sandwiched in between his Italian stints was a short-lived return to Hungary with Ferencváros and he returned once again to his homeland to conclude his club career with BVSC and Dunakeszi. 

Nearly 200 goals in around 400 appearances in club football is an enviable record but Détári's biggest fans will perhaps look at his international performances most admiringly, the playmaker's early exploits very much a factor in Hungary being thought of as one of the best national teams in the world in the mid-1980s when György Mezey led his side to victories over Austria, Netherlands and Brazil and qualification to the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.

At that tournament, Hungary failed to progress from a tough group but did beat Canada 2-0, Détári with the second strike which remains the country's most recent World Cup goal. In total, the three-time top goalscorer in a Hungarian top-tier league season (1985, 1986 and 1987) scored 13 goals in 61 international appearances.