HUNGARIAN CLASSICS OF FOOTBALL ORTH-KONRÁD II.-SCHAFFER
— Frigyes Becske | 11/07/1927 —

Football, like all art, has its classics. We can call them those outstanding individuals who pour their inexhaustible wealth of art into a form different from the template and customs, in whose interpretation we get to know those often unsuspected beauties, depths and subtleties that lie deep in the depths of this beautiful game and that place it high above most sports. In football, the individuality or the sports genius can fully express himself. He can shine his physical, spiritual and intellectual virtues. He can reveal the rich storehouse of his original ideas, he can realize the products of his imagination into success, he can freely assert all the characteristics of his nature, character, intellectual superiority, selflessness, energy and all those valuable qualities that together make up the classic of sport.

As in all fields, genius is a rare phenomenon in football, and we can count on the fingers of one hand the players who rightly deserve this adjective, often used in unjustified cases, on the continent.

Now that my long-held belief that Central European and English football is stagnating has been confirmed and that we should no longer measure the quality of today's matches by the old standards, unless we want to spread anti-football propaganda — today, when a bitter and indiscriminate life-and-death struggle, that is, a struggle for survival, rages on the green turf, we mourn a hundredfold the times when football was still an art. Because today it is no longer that, but hard work.

Before, we could often enjoy the play of true artists, the matches offered us the intoxicating excitement of a higher pleasure, the audience, in the true sense of the word, made an ever-increasing pilgrimage to the football fields to admire the brilliant manifestation of virtuosity and spirit, varied with courage, will and skill.

In these times, football conquered the hearts of tens of thousands of spectators.

It is true that humanity still had ideals back then. Enthusiasm for lofty ideals filled souls receptive to everything beautiful and valuable. This was also the golden age of football art.

Since then, however, the wheel of the world has turned a lot. The campaign of destroyers began and one by one the old idols fell to give way to the new Warlord, money.

Today, we only consider an idea noble and beautiful when it serves the great Mammon. Art is no longer an end in itself, but only a means to serve material interests. This materialization process makes its impact strongly felt in the most beautiful sport, football.

The player wants money, and the audience wants to see goals. Goals and money are the hallmarks of football today. There is no time for aesthetics or art.

The organization of football beats to the devilish rhythm of money. The noble idea of ​​sport is mocked by the business spirit. The amphitheater has become a goal factory, the arena a business premises, and the pleasures of creation a goal bonus.

In the past, the football chronicler was inspired by the great experience to create artistic drawings; today the sports reporter does his work in a dull, bored, melancholy manner. He has sunk into a photographer. We would need a soaring, colorful imagination and a complete lack of objectivity if we wanted to sing a hymn about a match today. And if sometimes the magnificently beautiful scenes of the triumphant past do shine within us, at that moment the blindingly sparkling vision is swallowed up by the gray haze of the bleak present, and from the whole experience only the memory of the colorful vision shines like an opalescent shell in the immeasurable depths of today's sea of ​​emotions, which can barely sing and is almost silent.

For the same intellectual decadence that measures the value of novels by the amount of blood that gushes out of them, the same moral atrophy that overthrows creative individuality and talent from its proud throne in order to worship clay idols created in its own image, the same perversion of taste that offers for sale in the market stalls of jazz bands the religious melodies of immortal masters, the same confusion of concepts that sees beauty as ugly, evil as good, and truth as false, according to how selfish interest and base passions demand it of him, the same spiritual stiffening of the neck that prevents the born of today from looking up at the stars and from gazing at the magical wonders of the thousand and one nights of nature - has also created the oppressive atmosphere in which art must perish...

It has never been more relevant to remember the classics of football than today, in the era of robot mentality. And if we examine the soil from which the greatest talents of continental football were produced, we come to the conclusion that the entire football world recognizes without reservation today: Hungary gifted universal football with the most brilliant footballing individuals.

It is undeniable that Uruguay can also refer to brilliant talents (Andrade, Scarone, Petrone, Piendibene, etc.). Czechoslovakia can also be justly proud of Káďa, Kolenaty, Kozeluh and the old Vaník, the Swedish Rydell, the Italian Viola, the Danish Middelboe, etc. They are undoubtedly excellent football individuals who, partly due to their virtuosity, partly due to their playing intelligence and other exceptional abilities, belong to the elite of universal football, but apart from Káďa, none of them can be called football geniuses, because their art is more superficial and the original spirit of the game of football does not live in perfect harmony with the practical requirements of football science.

In the game of the Uruguayan virtuosos, for example, we look in vain for superior intellectual performance, classical generosity, brilliant ideas. There, even brainwork is replaced by footwork. This is the one hundred percent technique.

Káďa's genius is unquestionable. This football artist, who possesses more than phenomenal abilities, truly builds the game. There is thought, calculation and planning in every action. He possesses the talent of a commander. His systematized and precisely executed football strategy represents a classic value, but his art is not entirely original, because it follows well-trodden paths and is not littered with sparkling, original ideas, dazzling improvisations, captivating individual bravura actions, which so characterize the expression of the creative genius. Káďa is more knowledge than artist.

Viola, about whom Austrian coaches working in Italy have told me wonderful things, is a comet of strength, energy and momentum in the football sky.

However, the light of the art of the incomparable Orth—Konrád—Schaffer trio shines brighter than all of this! It is a sheer coincidence that all three were born in almost the same years, because European football has not produced such talents before them and perhaps will not produce them anytime soon.

Gyuri, Csámi and Spéci created the golden age of football and introduced entire generations to the essence, spirit, depths and heights of the art of football. In their game, form and content were forged into a masterpiece and brilliant ideas were realized into reality without any disturbance. Due to their unlimited intellectual control over the game and their technical virtuosity that knew no difficulty, they could solve the most difficult football problems with playful ease: they opened up science in an artistic form. They taught and delighted.

And even if the ordinary citizens of football society criticize them a hundred times for being professionals, I confess that they are the true apostles of football, because only with inner devotion, enthusiasm and complete dissolution in the higher ideal of sports is it possible to do real creative work for the benefit of the human community.

Orth, Konrád and Schaffer are among the leading spirits of sports culture. Nothing proves their greatness better than the fact that the football art of the country where they operate stands or falls with them and is proven by the unparalleled triumphs that have been linked to their names over the long years. How many of today's football greats owe their fame, knowledge and careers to them? How many teams have they lifted from obscurity? How many have they taken to unimaginable heights? And what became of the clubs they left behind?

Gyuri, Csámi and Spéci could raise columns of their enemies and envious people. This is also a sign of greatness. The theorem is especially valid in our days that only mediocrity and inferiority do not arouse resentment. The crowd does not take kindly to being reminded of its imperfections.

However, anyone who loves beauty, is a friend of the arts and believes in higher forms of life should be enthusiastic when thinking about the brilliant art of Gyuri, Csámi and Spéci, which will only be truly appreciated by posterity from a sports historical perspective.