László Budai (19 July 1928 – 2 July 1983), also known as László Bednarik, or Budai II, was a former Hungarian footballer and coach. Budai was born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

and played as a midfielder and forward for

Ferencvárosi TC Ferencvárosi Torna Club, known as Ferencváros (), Fradi, or simply FTC, is a professional football club based in Ferencváros, Budapest, Hungary, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the top flight of Hungarian football. Ferencváros ...

, Honvéd and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. During the 1950s he was a member of the legendary Hungarian national team known as the ''Mighty Magyars''. Other members of the team included Ferenc Puskás,

Zoltán Czibor Zoltán Czibor (23 August 1929 – 1 September 1997) was a Hungarian footballer who played for several Hungarian clubs, including Ferencváros and Budapest Honvéd, and the Hungary national team before joining CF Barcelona. Czibor played as ...

Sándor Kocsis Sándor Péter Kocsis (; ; 21 September 1929 – 22 July 1979) was a Hungarian footballer who played for Ferencváros TC, Budapest Honvéd, Young Fellows Zürich, FC Barcelona and Hungary as a striker. During the 1950s, along with Ferenc Pu ...

József Bozsik József Bozsik (; 28 November 1925 – 31 May 1978) was a Hungarian footballer who played as a central midfielder. He spent his entire club career at his hometown club, Budapest Honvéd. Bozsik was a key member of the legendary Golden Team as ...

and

Nándor Hidegkuti Nándor Hidegkuti (3 March 1922 – 14 February 2002) was a Hungarian football player and manager. He played as a forward or attacking midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career at MTK Hungária FC. During the 1950s he was also ...

. The stadium of

Rákospalotai EAC Rákospalotai EAC is a Hungarian football club based in the Rákospalota quarter in the north-east of Budapest. REAC were promoted to the Nemzeti Bajnokság I., the first division in Hungarian football, after the 2005/06 season, but the team ...

was named after him.

Club career

During his career, Budai won four

Hungarian League Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the assignm ...

titles. The first of these came at

in 1949 where his teammates included

and

. In January 1949 when Hungary became a

communist state A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Comi ...

, Ferencváros were deemed unsuitable to become an army or police club because of its right-wing and nationalist traditions. Instead they were taken over by ÉDOSZ, a food workers union and their best players, including Budai, Czibor and Kocsis, were conscripted into the army team, Honvéd. While at Honvéd, Budai won a further three league titles and the

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the successor states of the former Austria-Hunga ...

Hungarian International

Budai made his debut for

on 2 May 1949 in a 6–1 win against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

in the Central European Championship. He subsequently played 39 times for Hungary and scored 10 goals. Four of these goals came in a 12–0 win against

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

on 24 September 1950. As one of the legendary ''Mighty Magyars'', he helped Hungary become Olympic Champions in 1952, and Central European Champions in 1953. He also played in the Hungary side that defeated

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

6–3 at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

. During the

1954 FIFA World Cup The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzer ...

he played in the group stage in the 9–0 win against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

and in the semi-final against

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. However, despite an excellent performance in the latter game, he was dropped for the final to make room for Ferenc Puskás. He also played two games at the

1958 World Cup The 1958 FIFA World Cup was the sixth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Sweden from 8 to 29 June 1958. It was the first FIFA World Cup to be played in a Nordic country. Brazil be ...

Honours

Hungary * Olympic Champions **1952 * Central European Champions **1953 *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

**''Runner-up'': 1954 Ferencváros TC * Hungarian Champions: 1 **1949 Honvéd FC * Hungarian Champions: 3 **1952, 1954, 1955 *

: 1 **1959

References

Sources

*''Behind The Curtain – Travels in Eastern European Football'': Jonathan Wilson (2006

External links

Hungary stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Budai, Laszlo 1928 births 1983 deaths Footballers from Budapest Hungarian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Hungary men's international footballers Hungarian football managers Ferencvárosi TC footballers Budapest Honvéd FC players Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Hungary Olympic gold medalists for Hungary 1954 FIFA World Cup players 1958 FIFA World Cup players Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics 1974 African Cup of Nations managers