The Forgotten Legends of Football: Sándor Kocsis

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.