Family, friends, former team-mates, players and admirers accompanied Komora Imre on his final journey on Monday at Farkasrét Cemetery in Budapest.
Even the heavens seemed to mourn the Kispest legend, who died on 15 August at the age of 84 and whom we bade a final farewell to today at Farkasrét Cemetery. Komora Imre is regarded as one of their own deceased by the Hungarian Football Federation, the Hungarian Olympic Committee, the Hungarian Defence Forces and Budapest Honvéd FC.
Among those attending the commemoration were his former team-mates Kozma Mihály, Pál József, Vági István and Tóth Kálmán; the players who won three consecutive league titles with Komora – Nagy Antal, Garaba Imre, Varga József, Gyimesi László, Esterházy Márton, Détári Lajos, Andrusch József, Dajka László, Sallai Sándor and Bodonyi Béla – as well as Mátyus János and Bárányos Zsolt from a younger generation. Budapest Honvéd FC was represented by the club's managing director Séllei Árpád and chronicler Kaszás Kálmán.
At the farewell ceremony, Sipos Jenő, spokesman for the MLSZ, was the first to remember Komora, followed by a moving eulogy from Nagy Antal, captain of Kispest's second Golden Team. Finally, a farewell speech was delivered on behalf of the family, concluding with the reading of a heartbreaking farewell letter from Komora Imre's grandchild. After the speeches, Komora Imre's ashes were laid to rest to the melody of Il silenzio.
Komora Imre was born in Budapest on 5 June 1940. He made his NB I debut at the age of 18 as a player of Szombathelyi Haladás, then moved to Kispest in 1961 and played for Bp. Honvéd for 11 years.
He was a hard-working, tireless player who never gave up on a ball and fought for the team for the full 90 minutes. He scored 65 goals in 278 league matches in red and white. During his playing career he was a four-time league runner-up, once a bronze medallist, a cup winner in 1964 and a cup finalist in 1968 and 1969. He won two caps for Hungary. In 1964 he became an Olympic champion and also won a bronze medal at the European Championship.
After retiring, he worked as Bp. Honvéd's football department manager from 1973 to 1982. From the summer of 1982 he was the team's head coach. In his first season he finished third in the league and reached the cup final, then won the league title with his team in each of the following three years. In 1985, alongside the league title, he also won the Hungarian People's Republic Cup with his team.
In the summer of 1986 he briefly became head coach of the Hungarian national team. Between 1989 and 1990 he was technical director of Greek side Olympiakos. In the 1990s he returned to his beloved club, serving the Kispest side as head coach and later as club director.
The death of Komora Imre is a great loss not only for Bp. Honvéd, but for Hungarian football as a whole
