how did FERENC PUSKAS play for 2 different national teams ?

Question

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_Puskas
like ronaldinho he got citizenship then played for spain.

Answer 1

At his Hungarian club team, Honved, Puskas became better known in Western Europe as the club travelled abroad playing exhibition matches. In December 1954 they came to Molineux, where they were beaten 3-2 by a Wolverhampton Wanderers side in its prime. The victory led the Wolves manager, Stan Cullis, to announce that his team were "champions of the world." At the same time, the Hungary national team were easily the best in Europe.

Political changes in Eastern Europe, however, were soon to see the break-up of that great Hungarian national side of the mid 1950s. They were on a par with the magnificent Brazilians who succeeded them as the world's best team. But by the next World Cup, Hungary had disintegrated and never achieved their rightful status as World Champions.

The cause was the Hungarian uprising of 1956, when Hungarian rebels revolted against their Soviet masters. There was bitter fighting, with tanks and bloodshed on the streets.

Puskas was abroad with the rest of his Honved team in Spain when the attempted revolution took place. They had been playing a European Cup tie against Bilbao and Puskas, along with team mates Kocsis and Czibor, defected to the West.

Puskas spent a year living in Austria, but failed to get a playing permit. He wanted to play in Italy, but, not playing regularly, he piled on weight as he drifted aimlessly around Europe looking for a club. Having turned 30 he was considered by many to be too old and too fat.

He was rescued by his old Honved manager Emil Oestreicher, now in charge at Real Madrid, who offered him a place in the Madrid side. In 1958, 31-year-old Puskas joined them, receiving a £10,000 signing-on fee, a fortune at the time..

Madrid's period of European Cup supremacy was coming to an end, however. In November 1960 they eventually lost their first European Cup tie - going down 4-3 to deadly rivals Barcelona. It was the beginning of the end of a remarkable era.

Puskas was to play in one more European Cup Final, for Real Madrid against Benfica in 1962. Benfica won 5-3 . . . Puskas, by then aged 35, scored all three goals for Real. In 39 European matches for Real, he scored an amazing 35 goals.

Having by then become a naturalized Spanish citizen through the length of time he had lived in the country, he was picked to play for Spain in the 1962 World Cup Finals in Chile. He accepted, because he felt that it was highly unlikely he would ever be chosen to play for Hungary again, given the circumstances of his departure, or even allowed back home. However, his presence in the team made little difference, and Spain won just one of their three matches and finished bottom of their qualifying group.

He played a total of four matches for Spain, and 84 for Hungary in his career.

In later years, he did return home to Hungary and was received as a national hero. At his recent death, he was given a full state funeral in Budapest.

Answer 2

Okay, my opinion is that everyone deep down inside knows that the SEC is by far the best conference in college football but will not acknowledge it publicly for two reasons. 1) The SEC already gets enough credit, and more could mean destruction to other conferences, and 2) SEC fans talk alot of crap, deservedly so, but still, they do. So, when you hear people saying their school would go undefeated in the SEC, it's only because some SEC fan said "LSU would go undefeated in the PAC-10", or something stupid like that, although they probably would. In my opinion, LSU is the most dominant team in the country, and I'd say that if we had a playoff system that we would see a LSU vs.Oregon national championship this year.

Answer 3

Born in Hungary played for them until 1956, In 1962, Puskás took Spanish citizenship and subsequently played four times for Spain, representing them at the 1962 World Cup.

Answer 4

I have it in my world cup book at home, but I'm at work so that's not much good at the mo.

It's something to do with The Cold War in 1956 - that's why he stopped playing international footbal for Hungaryl in 1956. Not exactly sure why he was allowed to play for Spain, but I will find out cos it's bugging me.

Answer 5

In the old days, the rules weren't as strict, and players could switch nationalities as they liked.

Now however, FIFA has ruled that as long as you have appeared at senior level for one country, you could not represent another country.

Answer 6

i dont think the rule of national representation were as tight are there are now.

what a scoreing record he had tho, i mean wow, is it better than peles, persentage wise i mean.

Answer 7

I don't know but may he watch other gr8 players from above, nice picture of Georgy!!