Despite the Tuesday-morning timing and the bitter cold, many people – including numerous former and current players of our club – came to pay their respects at the unveiling of the statue of our legend József Bozsik.
Speakers at the unveiling included Zoltán Lomnici, president of the Golden Team Committee; Péter Gajda, mayor of Budapest’s 19th district; Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade; and Kakha Kaladze, a two-time Champions League winner and Italian champion.
“It is time to say it clearly: József Bozsik was one of the best footballers in the world, one of the best half-backs in the world, playing for the best club team of the time, Honvéd, and for the best national team in the world at that time,” Lomnici said at Tuesday’s ceremony.
Mayor Péter Gajda highlighted Bozsik’s legendary friendship with Ferenc Puskás and his loyalty.
“Two world stars as great as József Bozsik and Ferenc Puskás set out towards worldwide fame from these few hundred square metres. Bozsik was so loyal that he never left Kispest. With this statue, he not only remains here forever, but we also create a fitting memorial to him.”
Kakha Kaladze, a two-time Champions League winner with AC Milan, praised our legend, also drawing on his own playing career.
“As an athlete, there is no greater glory than winning for your country and your hometown.” – he said, before also visiting the Budapest Honvéd Academy after the unveiling.
Péter Szijjártó praised the namesake of our stadium, describing him as a model of loyalty and a world-class player.
“When we speak about József Bozsik, we Honvéd people, Kispest people and Hungarians always feel pride. The Golden Team, and Honvéd, which formed its backbone and supplied six or seven players to the starting line-up, belongs not only among the golden chapters of Hungarian sporting history but of Hungarian history as a whole. And we know that neither the Golden Team nor the Honvéd of the 1950s and 1960s would have been the same without József Bozsik. József Bozsik’s name also became inseparable from the history of football in Kispest; he showed the football world what it means to remain loyal to your beloved club for an entire lifetime,” he said, before also discussing the significance of the golden lion standing in front of the stadium and the newly unveiled Bozsik statue.
“And the two statues together proclaim that Honvéd’s past, present and future are all built on a solid set of values. This statue is, on the one hand, respect for the past and, on the other, a message to the present” – he added.
