Sándor Kocsis
Sándor Kocsis
(21 September 1929 – 22 July 1979)
Sándor Kocsis, the inside-right of the legendary Hungarian Golden Team, began his senior career in 1947 at Ferencvárosi Torna Club (FTC). After the club was renamed Élelmezésipari Dolgozók Országos Szövetsége (EDOSZ) in 1949, he played one more season for Fradi.
From 1950 to 1956, just like the other legendary members of the Golden Team, he played for Budapesti Honvéd. Along with László Budai, they formed a brilliant partnership on the right wing. With Honvéd, he celebrated Hungarian championship titles in 1952, 1954, and 1955, and topped the league's scoring charts three times (1951, 1952, 1954). Sándor Kocsis scored 177 goals in the colours of Honvéd. Following the 1956 Revolution, like most of the Golden Team, he emigrated. Between 1948 and 1956 he won six league titles and finished as top scorer of the Hungarian league in 1951, 1952, and 1954. During his domestic career, from 1948 to 1956, he earned 68 caps for the national team. Alongside Puskás, he was one of the greatest Hungarian goalscorers, netting 75 goals for the national side. He was a key member of the Hungarian squad that claimed Olympic gold in Helsinki. He was also there at Wembley on 25 November 1953, when the English national team was defeated on home soil for the first time in ninety years by a team from outside the British Isles. He featured at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland as well, where the heavily favoured Hungarian team suffered a 3-2 defeat in the final against West Germany, whom they had previously beaten 8-3 in the group stage. Despite the defeat, Kocsis finished as the top scorer of the 1954 tournament with 11 goals.
Known affectionately by the nickname "Kocka" (The Cube), the genius forward was regarded as one of the best players of his era due to his football intelligence, consummate technical skill, and lethal finishing. Together with the Golden Team's winger, Budai II, they orchestrated a succession of brilliantly executed attacking moves down the right flank that often ended in goals. One of his distinct strengths was his heading ability, routinely surprising opposing defenders with extraordinarily potent aerial finishes.
After his emigration, he joined Young Fellows Zürich in 1957, from where, similarly to Puskás, he moved to the Spanish league in 1958, playing alongside Czibor for FC Barcelona until 1966. With the Catalan club, he won the Spanish championship in 1959 and 1960, and lifted the Copa del Rey in 1959 and 1963. He spent the remainder of his life in Barcelona, passing away in the Catalan capital on 22 July 1979.
