Budapest: Hungarian soccer great Ferenc Puskas, the best player of his generation and a key member of the nation’s “Golden Team” of the 1950s, died in hospital on Friday aged 79 after a long illness.

Puskas, who was known as “Little Brother” in Hungary, “The Galloping Major” in England and the “Booming Cannon” by Real Madrid fans, died at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT), his biographer Gyorgy Szollosi said.

“The exact cause of death was cardiovascular and respiratory failure triggered by pneumonia,” Szollosi said.

Puskas’ family appealed in a statement for dignified mourning and Hungary’s parliament held a one-minute silence on Friday.

Puskas, whose international scoring record of 83 goals in 84 games stood until 2003, won Olympic gold with Hungary in 1954, league titles with his Hungarian club Honved and with Real Madrid, with whom he also won three European Cups.

“This is a real tragedy for Hungary and specifically for us, his friends. I am on the verge of tears... the biggest sportsman of the country is no longer,” national news agency MTI quoted former international teammate Jeno Buzanszky as saying.

Puskas was the inspiration behind the “Magical Magyars”, the Hungarian national side that sensationally beat England 6-3 in 1953, the first foreign side to win at Wembley.

“My memories are that I have never seen the likes of ... as a team or an individual,” former England striker Tom Finney, who was injured for that game, told a radio channel.

“He, in my mind, is one of the greatest players I ever saw... and a humble sort of person,” Finney said.

As the last millennium drew to a close, Puskas was voted the 20th century’s fourth best player by the International Federation for Football History and Statistics.

“Of all of us, he was the best,” the late Nandor Hidegkuti, also a member of the Golden Team, said at Puskas’ 70th birthday party in 1997. “He had a seventh sense for soccer — if there were 1,000 solutions, he’d pick the 1001st.”

Born in April 1927, Puskas began his career in the domestic league aged 15 and won his first international cap three years later, scoring on his debut against neighbours Austria.

He was a talismanic member of Hungary’s 1950s team that lost just one match — the 1954 World Cup final — in six years.

That side was devastated by Hungary’s anti-communist uprising in 1956, after which Puskas went into exile.

In 1958, he resurrected his career at Real Madrid where he formed a lethal strike partnership with Argentine-born Alfredo Di Stefano, winning six domestic titles and conquering Europe.

Puskas scored four and Di Stefano three in Real’s mesmerising 7-3 European Cup win over Eintracht Frankfurt in Glasgow in 1960 — a match that has passed into soccer folklore.

Reacting to the news, Di Stefano said the game had lost one of its greats.

“They called me at home at seven this morning to tell me the sad news. I have lost a friend and a quality player. This is how Puskas was as a person and a player,” Di Stefano told the Real Madrid website.

“Puskas was one of the greatest football players of all time, but life, my friend, comes to an end when you least expect it.”

“The last time I saw him was two years ago when I went with some other veterans to Budapest to participate in a celebration dedicated to him,” Di Stefano added.

“He was born on April 27 and I was born on July 26, so when we celebrated each other’s birthdays there were only a few months difference between us.”

Puskas retired in 1967, going on to coach clubs in several countries, leading Greek side Panathinaikos to the European Cup final in 1971.

Puskas, who was admitted to hospital in late 2000 with arteriosclerosis and was later diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, leaves wife Erzsebet.

For Hungarians, whose national team has not qualified for a major championship since 1986, Puskas and the 1950s team are a proud, if distant, memory.

“I belong to the generation who could still see him play. He was Hungarian football, with a few others on the golden team,” said Attila Farkas, aged 65.

(Reuters)