The Forgotten Legends of Football: Sándor Kocsis

Sándor Kocsis

The Hungarian national football side of the 1950s was one of the most brilliant groups of men ever assembled on a football pitch. Hailed as the ‘Golden Team’ or the ‘Mighty Magyars’ by those who watched them, they are widely regarded as the greatest national side to have never won a World Cup.

The Magyars set records throughout the 1950s, surprising everyone by dominating the international stage despite their reputation as a small, emerging football nation. To this day they remain the side with the most consecutive games scoring at least one goal – they netted in 73 games from 1949 to 1957. The team also spent the longest time undefeated in the 20th and 21st centuries, a span of 4 years and 1 month from June 4th 1950 to July 4th 1954.

In 1952 Hungary won Olympic gold in Helsinki, and followed that up in 1953 by becoming Central European Champions after topping the table with 11 points. Between 1950 and 1956, the team recorded 42 victories, 7 draws and just a single defeat, which unfortunately came in the 1954 World Cup final against West Germany.

The golden boy of this ‘Golden Team’ was undoubtedly Ferenc Puskás. As the nation’s all-time leading goal scorer, his name is synonymous with the excellence of Hungarian football. Even the national stadium, Ferenc Puskás Stadium, reminds the world of their country’s most famous star.

The 1950s Hungarian national side – the famous “Golden Team” featuring Ferenc Puskas and Sandor Kocsis – is considered by some to be the greatest international side of all time

Puskás’ name is almost always dropped in discussions vis-à-vis the greatest players of all time. He was named World Soccer Player of the Year in 1953, European Player of the 20th century by French sports newspaper L’Equipe and is the only Hungarian listed in the prestigious FIFA 100 list. It is obvious, then, that he is hands down the single greatest player to come out of Hungary. Right?

Wrong.

While there is no doubt that Puskás is one of the greatest players of the 20th century and a true football icon, even he was outdone by another Hungarian in that great side of the 1950s: Sándor Kocsis.

From time to time in the football world, great football players are forgotten and their achievements diminished in the shadow of more popular teammates. It happened to Garrincha when the loveable Pele emerged as a star in the 1960s Brazil team, and it also plagued Karl-Heinz Rummenigge when the spotlight shifted to Lothar Matthäus in the German sides of the 1980s.

This curse is one shared by Sándor Kocsis: to be overlooked and underrated because he shared the stage with one of the most famous players of his generation. However, while Kocsis’ career wasn’t filled with player-of-the-century awards like Puskás’ was, it was arguably just as spectacular.

And his is a story that is certainly worth telling.

Biography

Born in Budapest in September 1929, Sándor Kocsis Peter began his playing career with KTC. After moving to struggling Hungarian outfit Ferencvaros in 1945, the striker helped his new club develop and, as the focal point of the side, helped them win the 1949 Hungarian title at the tender age of 19.

By the time he was conscripted to the army in 1950, Kocsis had scored 70 goals in just 94 matches, and all before he reached 21 years of age. As an infantryman, he joined the newly created army team Honved, and it was there that he established one of the great partnerships of the 20th century with Puskas. The duo helped the club to three league titles in just six years, and would go on to change the face of Hungarian football.

Kocsis and Puskás were incredibly effective together because they were completely different. Puskás was one of the most technically gifted players of his age, combining agility, ball control and a razor sharp footballing brain to dazzle defenders.

Kocsis, on the other hand, was a less refined talent. A bigger man than his partner, Kocsis was a powerful forward and a superb header of the ball. His talents in the air led him to the catchy and affectionate nickname “The Man with the Golden Head“.

Sandor Kocsis: “The Man with the Golden Head”

However, while Puskás was regarded as the more skilful player, that did not stop Kocsis from being equally prolific. He finished as top goal scorer in the Hungarian league on three occasions; in 1951, 1952 and 1954, scoring 30, 36 and 33 goals respectively. During the 1952 and 1954 seasons, he was the most productive goal scorer on the planet in first division football, a feat the great Puskás only accomplished once.

In 1957, Kocsis moved away from his home nation when the Hungarian revolution began. As a refugee, he spent one uneventful season with Young Fellows Zürich in Switzerland before he was persuaded to join Spanish giants FC Barcelona. There he would go on to win two La Liga titles, including the domestic double in his first season.

With 272 goals in 325 matches in a career spanning 22 years, Kocsis retired in 1966 at the ripe age of 37. After coaching spells with Hercules and Alicante, he was diagnosed with leukaemia and then stomach cancer in the mid-1970s, and died in 1978 after falling from a hotel balcony. It is unknown whether he committed suicide or if it was simply an accident.

Crafting a legacy

While Kocsis and Puskás were prolific players both together at Honved and then separately in their careers in Spanish football, the pair’s legacy was truly established whilst playing together for the Hungarian national team.

The pair dominated world football as a true partnership in the 1950s, but it is Puskás alone who is remembered outright as Hungary’s most clinical forward. After all, he is the nation’s all-time leading goal scorer. His staggering 84 goals in just 85 games in international play for the Magyars was the most in international football by any player in the 20th century, and the second most of all time behind Iran’s Ali Daei.

Having said that, there is an argument that Puskás only scored more goals than Kocsis because he began his international career before his strike partner did.

Both men ended their international careers with Hungary at the same time in 1956. As the Hungarian Revolution broke out in their home nation, the pair (along with many others) decided to abandon their country of birth as refugees. The Hungarian national side was, alas, no more.

Puskás began his international career in 1945, while Kocsis only earned his first cap in 1948. This gave Puskás an extra three years of play, amounting to 17 games more than Kocsis would ever manage. It is for this reason, and not talent, that Puskás is Hungary’s all-time leading goal scorer.

Kocsis, believe it or not, was actually the more clinical striker of the two. He scored an amazing 75 goals in just 68 games for Hungary, which is the second best goal scoring average of any international player in history behind Denmark’s Poul Nielsen. He averaged 1.103 goals per game against Nielsen’s 1.37, but played over 30 more games than the Dane and against much stiffer opposition.

Taking the world stage

The Hungarian national side line up before the 1954 World Cup Final in Bern, Switzerland. They would go on to lose the match 3-2 to West Germany.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Kocsis’ goal scoring record was his knack for netting on big occasions. In the 1954 World Cup, Kocsis scored a hat-trick in the opening game against Sweden, before bagging four goals against eventual champions Germany in an 8-3 win. With those performances, he became the first man ever to score two hat-tricks in a single World Cup (and one of only four men since – the others being Just Fontaine, Gianfranco Zola and Gerd Muller).

Kocsis then followed that by propelling the Magyars to the World Cup final with a clinching brace in extra time against the reigning world champions, Uruguay. Although Hungary eventually lost the final to West Germany, Kocsis wrote his name all over the record books with his magnificent campaign.

He would finish the competition as top goal scorer, taking home the Golden Boot with 11 goals in just five matches and breaking Ademir’s record of 10 goals set only four years earlier. He is still the second highest scorer in a single World Cup behind France’s Just Fontaine, and one of only 12 men with double digit goals in a single edition of the World Cup. His 2.2 goal per game average in single World Cup edition is still unbeaten.

Better than Puskas?

All things considered, it would not be outrageous to suggest that Kocsis is the greatest goal scorer that international football has ever seen. Only five players in history have scored more goals for their country: Puskás, Iran’s Ali Daei, Japan’s Kunishige Kamamoto, Zambia’s Godfrey Chitalu, and Brazilian legend Pelé. All five of those players played in far more games than Kocsis did.

However, when the question of the world’s finest goal scorers is raised, the great Hungarian is ignored in favour of names like Pele, Muller and his more celebrated teammate Puskás. Is that fair? Wasn’t Kocsis the more prolific player, at least statistically? After all, when Puskás and Kocsis took to the field together, the record books show that it was Kocsis who was more likely to find the back of the net.

It is perhaps too simplistic to say that by virtue of his better goal scoring ratio, Kocsis is a better player than Puskás. Finding the net is not the only mark of a great footballer. For those who weren’t around in the 1950s, the best indicator of a player’s true talent is in his reputation and his accolades. With that in mind, it is highly likely that Ferenc Puskás was indeed a better footballer than Sándor Kocsis. People don’t call him the greatest of all time for no reason.

Remembering a forgotten legend

While Kocsis may not have been the player that Puskás was, the history books don’t lie. He is still the 6th highest scorer ever in international football, and the single most prolific international striker of all time by ratio. Yet for some inexplicable reason those records seem to be disregarded.

It is unclear why Kocsis has drifted from football memory. Perhaps it was because in his side’s finest moment, a 6-3 thrashing of England at Wembley Stadium, the big forward failed to get on the score sheet and was outdone by his teammates, Puskás and Nándor Hidegkuti. Hidegkuti scored a memorable hat-trick that day, while Puskás netted the most iconic goal of his career, fashioning the ‘drag-back’ move and embarrassing captain Billy Wright before powering the ball home .

Ferenc Puskas celebrates scoring the famous ‘drag back’ goal against England at Wembley Stadium, 25 November 1953

Whatever the case may be, while Puskás is lauded as an icon of football history, with a stadium bearing his name stood proudly in his nation’s capital, Kocsis remains ludicrously and tragically forgotten. That isn’t right.

Sándor Kocsis was the second best player and the single greatest goal threat on one of the greatest international football teams to have ever played the game. He scored hat-tricks in World Cups, set scoring records and dominated opponents for his entire 23-year career. He was the Chris Sutton to Puskas’ Alan Shearer; the Dennis Bergkamp to his Thierry Henry.

Kocsis may not be Ferenc Puskás, but he will forever be one of the greatest strikers to ever play the game. He will always be “The Man with the Golden Head“, and for that he deserves to be remembered.