Sándor Péter Kocsis (; ; 21 September 1929 – 22 July 1979) was a Hungarian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who played for

Ferencváros TC Ferencváros () is the 9th district of Budapest ( hu, Budapest IX. kerülete), Hungary. Name The southern suburb of Pest was named after King Francis I on 4 December 1792 when he was crowned king of Hungary. History The development of F ...

, Budapest Honvéd, Young Fellows Zürich,

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Found ...

and

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

as a striker. During the 1950s, along with 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 ...

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 ...

, he was a member of the ''Mighty Magyars''. After the

1956 Hungarian Revolution The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hung ...

, he moved to Spain where he became a member of the

team of the late 1950s. Kocsis was a prolific goalscorer for both Budapest Honvéd and

. While playing for Honvéd, he was the top goalscorer in any European league in both 1952 and 1954. He also scored 75 goals in 68 appearances for Hungary – a 1.10 goal/game average at the game's highest level. Kocsis was the top goalscorer in the 1954 World Cup with 11 goals, a record at the time for goals in a single World Cup. He was also the first player to score two

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 w ...

s in a World Cup. His 2.2 goal/game average in the World Cup finals is second only to that of

Ernst Wilimowski Ernest Otton Wilimowski (, born Ernst Otto Prandella; 23 June 1916 – 30 August 1997), nicknamed "Ezi", was a footballer who played as a forward. He ranks among the best goalscorers in the history of both the Poland national team and Polish c ...

(

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

) who scored four goals in his only World Cup match, and only Just Fontaine has scored more goals than Kocsis in a single World Cup. He is the joint second most prolific goalscorer in national team matches in all levels in recorded history according to the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

) with 124 goals scored. Kocsis was particularly known for scoring headers. His 1.103 goals/game average is ranked No.1 for players past 43 caps in

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

class-A competition, closely followed by Gerd Müller with 1.097 goals/game (68 goals in 62 games). They are the only two players in history above a +1.0 goals/game average encompassing over 43 internationals. Ferenc Puskás with .99 goals/game (84 goals in 85 matches) is currently ranked 3rd. Sándor Kocsis registered a national record of seven hat tricks for Hungary, including a four-goal haul against

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

at the 1954 World Cup.

Career

Early years

Kocsis 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 o ...

. He began his career as a junior with Kőbányai TC, before joining Ferencváros in 1946. There, he won his first Hungarian League title in 1949. He was then conscripted into the army and joined the army club, Honvéd. His teammates at Honvéd included Ferenc Puskás,

and

. During his time at the club he won three more Hungarian League titles in 1952, 1954 and 1955. He finished as top goalscorer in the league on three occasions in 1951, 1952 and 1954 scoring 30, 36 and 33 goals respectively. On the latter two occasions he was also the top goalscorer in any European league. During the 1952 season at Honvéd, Kocsis was the world's top goalscorer in world 1st division football with 36 goals. He repeated that feat in 1954 with 33 goals.

1952 Olympics & 1948–53 Central European International Cup

Kocsis made his debut for the senior

team in 1948. Together with Ferenc Puskás,

and

, he formed the offensive nucleus of the Golden Team that went unbeaten for 32 consecutive games. The Hungarian national team suffered no defeats in Class-A international matches between 4 June 1950 and 4 July 1954, in the 1954 FIFA World Cup Final. Kocsis scored his first international hat trick in a game against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

on 20 November 1949, and he scored a further one on 22 June 1952 against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

. Kocsis also scored six goals at the Olympics in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

as Hungary became Olympic Champions in 1952. On 19 October 1952, he scored his third international hat trick in a game against

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. In 1953, Hungary defeated England 6–3 at Wembley Stadium and then in 1954 by 7–1 in

. During the latter game, Kocsis added a further two goals. Hungary also won the 1948–53 Central European International Cup with Ferenc Puskás as top scorer.

1954 World Cup & 1955-60 Central European International Cup

He finished the 1954 World Cup as top goalscorer, scoring 11 goals including two hat tricks, the first of the three players that achieved this. In the opening game he scored his first hat trick of the tournament against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

as Hungary cruised to a 9–0 win. In the next game against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, he went one further and scored four of the goals in an 8–3 win against the understrength team of coach Sepp Herberger. In the quarter-finals Hungary played

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in a game referred to as the ''

Battle of Berne A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

'': Kocsis scored twice in an encounter which saw Hungary win 4–2. Hungary then reached the final after they defeated reigning World champions Uruguay in the semi-finals. The game was 2–2 in extra time until Kocsis scored twice to seal another 4–2 win. In the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

they met Germany once again. However, for the first time in the competition Kocsis failed to score and the Germans won 3–2. On 24 October 1954, he scored his sixth international hat trick and second against

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. He completed his seventh and last hat trick for Hungary on 5 November 1955 in a game against the same opponents,

, that he had scored his first. Ending the Golden years with a silver medal at the 1955-60 Central European International Cup, making it a grand total of 2 gold/titles and 2 silver for the Mighty Magyars.

Honvéd World Tour

In 1956 Honvéd entered the European Cup and in the first round they were drawn against Athletic Bilbao. Honvéd lost the away leg 3–2, but before the home leg could be played, the Hungarian Revolution had erupted back in

. The players decided against going back to Hungary and arranged for the return with Athletic to be played at the ''Heysel Stadium'' in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. Despite drawing 3–3 they went out on 6–5 on aggregate. Elimination left Honvéd in limbo. The players summoned their families from Budapest and, despite opposition from

and the Hungarian football authorities, they organised a fundraising tour of Italy, Portugal, Spain and Brazil. After returning to Europe, the players parted ways. Some, including Bozsik, returned to Hungary while others, including Czibor, Kocsis and Puskás, found new clubs in Western Europe.

FC Barcelona and coaching career

Kocsis spent one season with Young Fellows Zürich before another Hungarian refugee, László Kubala, persuaded him and

to join him at

where he became a vital member of the team. He subsequently scored on his

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Banco Santander, Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaL ...

debut in a 4–1 win over

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito ...

and as part of a team that also included Ramallets, Evaristo and Luis Suárez, Kocsis won a

Copa del Generalísimo The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

and

double in 1959 and a La Liga and Fairs Cup double in 1960. FC Barcelona also reached the final of the European Cup in 1961 and this saw Czibor and Kocsis return to the Wankdorf Stadium in

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

, where in 1954, while playing for

, they had lost the World Cup Final and where, on 23 February 1958, Kocsis had lost 5–1 to BSC Young Boys while playing for Young Fellows Zürich. Despite both Kocsis and Czibor scoring, they finished on the losing side once again. They also lost by the same 3–2 score again, this time to S.L. Benfica. He scored twice in the 1959

final as FC Barcelona defeated Granada CF 4–1. In the 1960 European Cup he scored four of the goals in a 5–2 quarter-final win over Wolves. He also scored a hat trick against Real Sociedad in a

game in 1961 and scored all three goals in the 1962 Fairs Cup final that they lost to Valencia CF 7–3 on aggregate. In 1961, he also played as a guest for Valencia CF and helped them win their own summer trophy, the ''Trofeo Naranja''. He scored in both games as Valencia beat

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills o ...

and FC Barcelona. Kocsis also scored in the 1963

final held at the Camp Nou. FC Barcelona beat

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at L ...

3–1.

Later life and death

Kocsis retired as a player in 1966 and opened a restaurant in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

called ''Tete D’ Or''. He also worked as a coach with

and managed Hércules CF between 1972 and 1974. However his coaching career was cut short when he was diagnosed with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

and then stomach cancer. On 22 July 1979, aged 49, he fell to his death from the fourth floor of a hospital in Barcelona. It has been alleged that he

committed suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and subs ...

, though it may have been only an accident.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Ferencváros * Hungarian Champions: 1949 Honvéd *Hungarian Champions: 1952, 1954, 1955 Barcelona * Spanish Champions: 1958–59, 1959–60 *

: 1958–59, 1962–63 * Inter-Cities Fairs Cup: 1958–60 Hungary *

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The ina ...

: 1952 *

Central European International Cup The European International Cup of Nations was an international football competition held by certain national teams from Central Europe & South Europe between 1927 and 1960.Leo Schidrowitz "Internationaler Cup", Vienna 1954 There were competitions ...

: 1948–53 *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

runner-up: 1954 *

: Runner-up: 1955–60 Individual * Hungarian Football Federation Player of the Year: 1954 * FIFA World Cup Golden Boot: 1954 * FIFA World Cup Golden Ball: 1954 * FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1954 * World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time *

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French news magazine '' France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (f ...

: 8th place

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are kille ...

Sources

*''Behind The Curtain — Travels in Eastern European Football'': Jonathan Wilson (2006) *''The World Cup — The Complete History'': Terry Crouch (2002) *''50 Years of the European Cup and Champions League'': Keir Radnedge (2005)

References

External links

*
La Liga stats

Hungary stats at Sportmuzeum

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kocsis, Sandor 1929 births 1979 deaths Footballers from Budapest Association football forwards Hungarian footballers Budapest Honvéd FC players Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Hungary Olympic gold medalists for Hungary Hungary international footballers La Liga players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Ferencvárosi TC footballers FC Barcelona players Valencia CF players 1954 FIFA World Cup players SC Young Fellows Juventus players Hungarian refugees Hungarian defectors Hércules CF managers Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Hungarian football managers Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate football managers in Spain Hungarian expatriate footballers Hungarian expatriate football managers Accidental deaths from falls