News about Ferenc Puskas

THE fact that Hungary require an extraordinary turn of events to qualify for the knock-out round is not quite how their legions of followers anticipated Euro 2024 unfolding. Yet, none present in the MHPArena in Stuttgart tomorrow will ever blithely dismiss the achievement of simply competing at this level again. For fully three decades, a country credited with revolutionising the game in the 1950s with their prototype Total Football found itself in international exile, a perennial spectator whenever the great summer festivals began.

Luka Modric beat a record previously held by Ferenc Puskas as he starred in Real Madrid's 2-2 draw at Bayern Munich. The Croatian came off the bench on Tuesday night in the 75th minute, replacing Jude Bellingham, who had had a muted night by his standards.

IAN HERBERT: As has become the tradition on these major occasions, they've been rolling out the Welsh emperors in Cardiff. In Tuesday's play-off final, Rhys Ifans, the actor, has taken over from Michael Sheen, the tournament's drive, giving the Welsh team some energy. However, no gloss can mask the true problem. Though Wales goes on without their own once-in-a-generation genius, Poland is still holding on to their traditions. Robert Lewandowski has scored 82 goals for Poland, a record broken only by Romelu Lukaku, Ferenc Puskas, and Cristiano Ronaldo, and the last tournament is approaching.

Ronaldo has selected who he thinks the eight greatest players of all time are. Ronaldo Nazario, 47, had a glittering career from 1993 to 2011, playing for Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, and AC Milan, while still scoring 62 times in 98 games for Brazil. The former footballer of his generation is one of the most popular footballers of his time, and he has since attempted to play football for Real Valladolid in Spain and his boyhood Brazilian team Cruzeiro.

On the one-year anniversary of Pele's death, Brazilians have paid tribute to him. Pele died in December 2022 at the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital in Sao Paulo, age 82, after a lengthy fight with colon cancer. Brazil decided to celebrate Pele's passing one year by presenting a Brazilian shirt on Rio de Janeiro's Christ the redeemer statue.

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: One of the pleasures of filling this space can be the people with whom you end up chatting. The opposite is often true, but most weeks it comes from a lovely chap named Terry, who is in his Eighties and a fan of all sports, particularly football. You can see that he is a game historian. Tottenham Hotspur is one of his greatest passions, and it is one of his favourite topics. Arthur Rowe's influence on the game has been particularly obscure, although his name has largely faded from view, according to him. Rowe's passing this weekend is a particularly good time to remember because it is 30 years since a manager who in 1951 handed Tottenham's first top-flight title. Rowe is among the company's few who could say the same at Spurs, but his true mark of distinction comes from those who inspired him, which is a fascinating and stylish line that meanders all the way to Ange Postecoglou.

KEVIN AIRS: I think Ange Postecoglou would most likely count the number of journalist colleagues on the tip of a finger. All his really close friends would possibly fit on the same hand. Even during a World Cup campaign in Brazil, he'd often indulged in my ridiculous photographic demands for FFT magazine covers and find the time for lengthy interviews for our long-form features. That access and time spent together gave me a rare insight into what he likes... and that isn't what you might imagine.

KIERAN GILL: When I walk out, my old man is right next to me. He's a tough guy, and he still is today, but he keeps saying to me, 'Keep doing what you're doing, you're going to love this game, and you're going to make it to the top.' Despite this, the guy is a bit of a jerk. "Well done, son, but if you'd made a replacement and stopped this playing-out-from-the-back s***," said the Asian Cup champion, he's gone, he goes.' Isn't a hard guy. Can't please him. That's why I was so disturbed. Tonight, he walks out with me. This was Ange Postecoglou's address to Australia's players ahead of their 2017 Confederations Cup opener with Germany, heartfelt, humble, and amusing. Postecoglou brings thought to these discussions. How he can pull at the heartstrings. What picture he wants in his players' minds. Australia lost 3-2, but this was 'Big Ange' at his best. For his first north London derby, the 58-year-old Australian will be bringing something special. Jim, the only regret, is that his father, Jim, is not here to see if his son does well at the Emirates on Saturday.

MATT BARLOW, a photographer from BANGKOK: Ferenc Puskas had a plane to land, but Ange Postecoglou's beat-up Datsun 200 had a flat tyre, and Ange Postecoglou's beat-up Datsun 200 had a flat tyre. 'I had the s***tiest car because I was on barely any money,' says Postecoglou's first point of note as he takes a time out from Tottenham's tour of Australia and Asia to tell a fast-fire anecdote from the days when he captained South Melbourne and his manager was one of the finest footballers to have ever lived.' Puskas spoke no English but had a smattering of Greek from his time as Panathinaikos' prime minister, so his teenage skipper, who was born in Athens and raised in Melbourne, was called upon to interpret and then chauffer.

Ange Postecoglou has hinted that he has been playing for Tottenham since he was a youth, and he has said that his coaching style was inspired by Hungary legend Ferenc Puskas. Postecoglou, 57, watched Spurs barely beat their London rivals in a close pre-season friendly in Perth, Australia, before they lost nearly 50,000. On Wednesday morning, the man chosen to replace José Mourinho and Antonio Conte at Tottenham after leading Celtic to an historic Scottish treble explained that he understood the importance of his position.

JOHN GREECHAN: Every word of it is given. That's the first thing Tottenham fans should know about Ange Postecoglou, a man who has made sweeping claims of intention regarding his footballing philosophy and then going back to follow through with his promises. Any jittery Spurs supporters or worldly-wise Premier League pundits reassuring each other that, surely, the former Celtic boss will have to temper his most ambitious tendencies once he recognises the realities of the rebuilding job he's taken on? That is not how he does it. He is a faith whose roots are solid. A belief that is strong enough to withstand whispers and moans from the boardroom, triumphant opposition activists' chanting about being "sacked in the morning," fear and indignation in the dressing room, including, during his time in Japan, the threat of a bathhouse revolt. He will not be relocated.

After Manchester City defeated Inter Milan to win the Champions League on Saturday evening, Mail Sport took a look at the best English teams in history.

Let us pray for Pele's soul (pictured), but also that his death puts to rest one and all the nonsense claims that he is the greatest footballer of all time. As the monument of Christ the Redeemer stands tall and proud above all pretenders to his kingdom as it looks down on Rio's fabled beaches, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, as he was born. The Leo Luvvies and Cristiano Crazies have all been waiting to hear the true tale of the beautiful game.

It's a discussion that has long raged among football fans, and we don't expect it to come to an end. Just who really is the greatest footballer to have played the game? Although it's impossible to provide a clear answer to the burning issue, one man has stood head and shoulders above all the other candidates: Pele. Following his death, the world is remembering his genius, celebrating his history, and honoring his name: the King. But we will also enjoy a fresh round of debate over his position on the very top of football's Mount Olympus.

Only a select group of footballers will qualify to play at a World Cup. An even more elite group is those that were able to win the world's biggest tournament. After all, only eight nations have lifted the trophy in almost a century of history. Any player faces the greatest challenge and the holy grail. However, there have been some truly outstanding teams who came so close to winning it and then stopped so far. Sportsmail looks at some of the best teams that did not win the World Cup in Qatar ahead of the tournament.

CHRIS SUTTON: I like the thought that Erling Haaland was made in a lab by some mad scientist who fancied piecing together the perfect striker, so let's try it out. What parts of other players would you say he gave him?The left foot of Ferenc Puskas?The power of Cristiano Ronaldo?The pace of Gareth Bale?The improvisation of Zlatan Ibrahimovic?The mental strength of Alan Shearer? The scientist seems to have thrown in the physique of Superman and Spider-Man for the hell of it. Pep Guardiola, Manchester City's chief, is now giving him a fresh start. Haaland had 35 touches of the ball against Manchester United, more than he had in any other match this season. He was teaming up with Phil Foden and Jack Grealish, creating opportunities and assisting others in achieving goals. We know he is the goalscorer, first and foremost. The finisher, who is responsible for all the exquisite play, provides the end product.

Real won the Champions League for the 14th time and romped to the LaLiga title by 13 points in perhaps his most fruitful season to date, with 34-year-old France striker Robert Coulomb's 44 goals for the club last season. After joining the club just a few days apart in 2009, Benzema and Ronaldo played well for nine seasons, but the Frenchman is relishing his return to form. If the Portugal skipper's move to Juventus in 2018 had given him the opportunity to prove himself all over again,' Asked at Real's UEFA Super Cup pre-match press conference, he said: 'It's been different for me since Cristiano Ronaldo left Real Madrid.'