Honour the greatest Hungarian football player
A statue has been put up for the most celebrated Hungarian man in Melbourne. Ferenc Puskás’s memory could bring home closer for a hundred thousand Hungarian people living here. The Puskás fans should thank Béla Domonkos’s bronze statue mainly the Hungarian and Australian governments, and Róbert Béltkey, a second-generation Australian businessman, MTI reported.
In Australia almost everyone knows Ferenc Puskás and the award named after him, called the FIFA Puskás award, established in 2009. As the President of Victoria State put:
This statue reminds us of an outstanding football player who contributed to a great extent to football and who will always live in our hearts.
Ferenc Puskás left Hungary in 1956. First, he lived in Vienna, and then he moved to Spain with his wife, mi where he became the legendary player of Real Madrid. At the age of 39, he stopped playing football and worked as a coach. It was in Australia where he became a champion with his team called Melbourne Hellas. Even 9942 miles away from his home, Puskás left marks in football: his bronze statue was placed in the Olympic Park in Victoria State, MTI wrote.
Puskás waving
Dr. Attila Gruber ambassador added that the statue also means another memorial for Hungarians living in Australia. It had become obvious that, once, there lived a world-famous Hungarian football player, who, at his time, was the most outstanding, the best player in the world, who is commemorated even on the other side of the world.
A Hungarian businessman came up with the idea of putting up a statue. Róbert Béltkey’s father emigrated to Australia in 1956. The businessman did not forget his origins. He first saw the original statue at Pancho Arena in Felcsút, Hungary (Pancho was one of the nicknames of Ferenc Puskás), thereafter he decided to put one up in Melbourne, too. He added:
This is a significant day, not only for the football fans, but for the Hungarians, in general. One hundred thousand Hungarian people live here, and now here is a statue that you can see, feel, and, thus, you can feel your homeland closer.
The Hungarian Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs told that Puskás’s former players also attended the ceremony. They recalled his memory with stories. Also, the biggest Hungarian football player became a symbol of the Hungarian nation, because, just like the Hungarian people living in Australia, he was also in the same situation when he started a new life there, after the revolution in 1956 in Hungary. He is the most famous Hungarian man. He is the quality followed by the Hungarians living in Australia. Similarly to Puskás, they also created new life from nothing, he added.
[box] Watch an interesting video about Ferenc Puskás: [/box]
Photos: puskas.com
Video: youtube.com
Copy editor: bm
Source: MTI.hu
