Nándor Hidegkuti (3 March 1922 – 14 February 2002) was a Hungarian football player and manager. He played as a forward or

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

and spent the majority of his playing career at MTK Hungária FC. During the 1950s he was also a key member of the Hungary national team known as the Golden Team. Other members of the team included Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor,

Sándor Kocsis Sándor Péter Kocsis (; ; 21 September 1929 – 22 July 1979) was a Hungarian Association football, footballer who played for Ferencvárosi TC, Budapest Honvéd FC, Budapest Honvéd, SC Young Fellows Juventus, Young Fellows Zürich, FC Barcelo ...

and József Bozsik. In 1953, playing as a '' deep-lying centre-forward'', a position which has retroactively been compared to the modern '' false 9'' role, he scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

for Hungary when they beat

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

6–3 at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. Playing from deep, Hidegkuti was able to distribute the ball to the other attackers and cause considerable confusion to defences. This was an innovation at the time and revolutionised the way the game was played. Hidegkuti died on 14 February 2002 after suffering from heart and lung problems for some time. MTK Hungária FC renamed their stadium, Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium, in his honour.

Club career

Hidegkuti started his career in Elektromos FC and Herminamezei AC.

MTK Budapest

Hidegkuti began playing for MTK in 1947. In 1949 when Hungary became a

communist state A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

, MTK were taken over by the secret police, the ÁVH and subsequently the club changed their name several times. Initially they became ''Textiles SE'', then ''Bástya SE'', then ''Vörös Lobogó SE'' and then finally back to MTK. Despite this turmoil, the 1950s proved a successful era for club and it was while at MTK that Hidegkuti, together with Péter Palotás and coach Márton Bukovi, pioneered the deep lying centre-forward position. With a team that also included Mihály Lantos and József Zakariás, MTK and Hidegkuti won three Hungarian League titles, a Hungarian Cup and a Mitropa Cup. In 1955, as ''Vörös Lobogó SE'', they also played in the first ever European Cup. Hidegkuti scored twice as they beat RSC Anderlecht 10–4 on aggregate in the first round. After retiring as a player, Hidegkuti also had two spells as a coach at MTK.

International career

Between 1945 and 1958 Hidegkuti earned 69 appearances and scored 39 goals for

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much 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 south, Croatia and ...

. He scored twice on his debut on 30 September 1945 in a 7–2 win against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. Two years later, on 17 August 1947, he made his second international appearance and scored a hat-trick against

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. On 18 November 1951 he scored another hat trick against

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. He became a central player in the Golden Team of the early and mid-1950s; during this time, Ferenc Puskás,

and Hidegkuti provided the Hungarians a total of 198 goals. Hidegkuti was used by the Golden Team as a deep lying centre-forward. In the 1950s, the majority of international sides still used the WM formation, where the defending centre half would traditionally mark the opposition's centre forward – usually whoever was wearing the number 9 shirt. When a defending centre half attempted to mark Hidegkuti, they were drawn out of position, allowing the rest of the Hungarian team to exploit the space. At the time this was a revolutionary tactic, requiring the player in the deep lying centre-forward position to have excellent ball control, distribution skills and positional awareness. Former England and Leeds United manager, Don Revie paid tribute to the influence of Hidegkuti in his autobiography: "In the summer of 1954 England and Scotland were knocked out of the World Cup series in Switzerland. That competition was won by Germany, but dominated by Hungary, who played with a deep-lying centre forward, ''Nandor Hidegkuti''. Alongside him; Sandor Kocsis and Ferenc Puskas, two of the greatest inside-forwards in the world. But whatever people claim of Kocsis and Puskas, it was the man Hidegkuti who tore the England defence to shreds at Wembley in November 1953. It was Hidegkuti, again playing his hide-and-seek centre-forward game, who shattered England in the return match in Budapest in May 1954, when we were thrashed 7–1."

Sepp Herberger Josef "Sepp" Herberger (28 March 1897 – 28 April 1977) was a German football player and manager. He is most famous for being the manager of the West Germany national team that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup final, a match later dubbed '' The Mir ...

, manager of the West German team that would defeat Hungary in the 1954 World Cup final, identified Hidegkuti as the most important player in the Hungarian team (despite Puskas drawing a lot more public attention) and adjusted his tactics for the final to prevent him from playing out his game.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Hungarys's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Hidegkuti goal.''

Managerial career

As a manager Hidegkuti coached clubs in Hungary, Italy, Poland and Egypt. In 1961 he guided

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

to victory in the first ever European Cup Winners' Cup, beating Rangers 4–1 on aggregate in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. With Győri ETO he won the Hungarian League in 1963 and then took them to the semi-final of the 1964–65 European Cup where they lost to eventual runners-up, Benfica. In

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, Hidegkuti coached Al Ahly, introducing a 5–3–2 formation, he coached Al Ahly for seven seasons from 1973 to 1980. For his model behaviour as a player and coach, he was awarded the 1993 FIFA Fair Play Award.

Honours

Player

MTK Hungária * Hungarian Champions: 1951, 1953, 1958 * Hungarian Cup: 1952 * Mitropa Cup: 1955 Hungary * Olympic Gold Medalist:

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

* Central European Champion: 1953 *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

runner-up:

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

Individual * Hungarian Football Federation Player of the Year: 1953 * FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1954

Manager

Fiorentina * European Cup Winners' Cup: 1960–61 Győri ETO FC * Hungarian Champions: 1963 * Hungarian Cup: 1965, 1966, 1967 Al-Ahly *

Egyptian Premier League The Egyptian Premier League (), also known as the Nile League () for sponsorship reasons, after the addition of title sponsor Nile Developments, is a professional association football league in Egypt and the highest level of the Egyptian football ...

: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980 * Egypt Cup: 1978

Notes

References

Sources

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

External links

Hungary stats at Rsssf Hungary stats
Retrieved 2019-02-25. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hidegkuti, Nandor 1922 births 2002 deaths Hungarian men's footballers Hungary men's international footballers MTK Budapest FC players Hungarian football managers Győri ETO FC managers Tatabányai SC managers MTK Budapest FC managers ACF Fiorentina managers 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 Footballers from Budapest Expatriate football managers in Egypt Expatriate football managers in Italy Olympic medalists in football Stal Rzeszów managers Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Men's association football forwards Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Al Ahly SC managers Nemzeti Bajnokság I managers Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates 20th-century Hungarian sportsmen