The role of Hungarian football in Europe in the past and present
Hugo Meisl | 17/04/1927

Strict critics were triggered by the recent catastrophic defeat of the Hungarian national team in Vienna to raise entirely new play and style issues.

On a purely theoretical basis, however, the current situation is unlikely to change favorably any time soon. So let’s stick to the solid ground of facts and practice.

In the 1918, 1919 and 1920 years, Hungary had a team in MTK which, in terms of game culture, has thrived on the continent at undoubtedly unattainable heights.

Even a few of the Scottish League's leading teams have been able to carry out the closed offensive actions of the modern scientific combination style with as much precision and as much refinement as the then-unforgettable team of the blues and whites — although the Scots were relatively richer in football than the Hungarian capital in these years.

But Schaffer, Kálmán Konrád, Pataky, Braun, Tóth, Schlosser, Winkler and a few others — they were great types of footballers and the football society of the whole continent considered the gaming style of this Hungarian elite class to be a real gospel.

However, Hungarian football lost all but a few of its outstanding personalities due to the worst possible economic conditions. The Hungarian representative players, who have been staring everywhere, have been piled up with more tempting offers from abroad, and on this basis, the foreigners who want to learn and are ambitious have persuaded them to leave the classics of Hungarian football culture.

In the midst of the harshness of the relationship, it was even more fortunate that these football phenomena were able to make a living, directly or indirectly, in various countries in Europe and in countries that were more or less important for football.

I would like to say openly that Vienna — not least to my encouragement — also took part in the Hungarian "class loans". We took out two such loans. First in the person of the Konrád brothers and later in the person of Schaffer.

I would like to emphasize that we, the Viennese, in sharp contrast to other cities and countries, have shown absolutely correct and loyal behavior in taking over Hungarian class players and can safely take responsibility for the actual value of the class loans taken out before the sports history tribunal.

What happened next?

As I mentioned, Hungary still has some outstanding players left and due to the involvement of the wonderfully developed Gyuri Orth, the balance seemed to be restored.

However, this tilt of balance was only apparent. At first, everything went well, but when the great revolution of the rules of the game took place, the Hungarians were no longer able to adapt to these profound changes. Why not? Firstly, because the waves of emigration continued, and secondly, because the fine Scottish game culture has survived and once so excellent interpreters have become older, slower and more blasphemous.

The only flare-up of the once-great class of Hungarian football was seen in the performance against Bolton Wanderers two years ago. Other than that, in no case do I remember when the Hungarian national team played convincingly, that is, when they managed to remind us of their former greatness in terms of technical, tactical and moral spirit! The will was almost always there, but the old art and morals were almost never there.

About the ability to laugh.

Not all players have the wonderful gift of being able to influence their environment in a suggestive and instructive spirit. There are big names in the world from whom their peers, but especially young people, learn nothing. Fertility is very rare in this area.

However, the two real stars of Hungarian football had this rare feature: Kálmán Konrád and Alfréd Sehaffer — perhaps unconsciously.

Where these two players have been active for a longer period of time or have been guest appearances more often, the game culture has visibly increased. This is not just for Austria. It applies to Germany and Switzerland, where Schaffer and Konrád have been educating for half a generation, but to every country where their exceptional and captivating art has shone through their youth. All the team crews, where these two most witty Hungarian football players took part, became the championship team of the country in question.

While the Scottish trainer has never been known: Robertson's traditions were revived only a few days in Budapest in the game of old greats and some new talents, which are rarely played and also seldom well-disposed, until Vienna, Nuremberg, Munich, Stockholm, so wherever Spéci and Csámi presented football high his school as mushrooms emerged from the ground in rather good copies of the Konrád, Schaffer, Schlosser, Winkler, and later the Nemes, Schwarz, and Guttmann.

The striking rise of the Austrian football class in Kuthan, Braunsteiner, Fischera, Wieser, Bauer, etc. He could not be left behind after the merging of the Viennese school created by Austrian footballers with the Hungarian-Scottish style, masterfully expressed in the play of Schaffer, Konrád and Schlosser.

The effect of teaching.

Our former greats are also disappearing from the stage, but in the person of Sindelar, Rappan, Weiss, Siegl, Klima, Luef, Schall, Horváth, Hofmann and a few other young talents who will soon be in the sun, we have excellent descendants born from the retirement of the old, the gaps will be fully filled.

The same is true in Germany, Italy and Sweden.

With this I want to point out that the Hungarians gave a lot to the different countries of the continent with the individuality that proved to be a tower of knowledge and suitable for style breeding, but they themselves barely took anything from the traditions of these football teachers.

Where are the students and copies of Schaffer, Konrád, Orth, Pataky, Tóth, Braun, Schlosser in Hungary today? Where is the old spirit-soaked gaming system?

I was happy to make financial sacrifices for the developers of Vienna’s football culture.

So whose merit is it if Vienna has benefited significantly more from the classics of Hungarian football in terms of game culture than Budapest itself?

Is it only the palm of recognition that belongs to the teacher? Didn’t that student who devoted a lot of time, money, and effort to purposeful work earn himself the same merit in this area?

I think you can give the right answers to these questions without any objective critical thinking.

I will now dismiss the mult Sunday result because it does not affect the core of my explanations at all. The Hungarian team had so many weak points this time that a serious expert is aware of the quite exceptional sign of the Sunday meeting. With a differently assembled national team, the Hungarians will probably be able to clear up the fight against the Czechs in Prague next time. It is also very easy to imagine that the autumn Hungarian-Austrian match will bring the much-desired revenge to Hungarian football.

However, this is still a non-major means of meaning that the Hungarian football class has gained a healthy litter. Because as a result of the right system, the series of victories are born.

The case in Austria, as in Hungary, driving hunts to goals and earnings on Sundays must be restricted. The main objective should not be a victory of dubious value at all costs, but we should try to outdo each other in style and system.

The Austrian football empire is not a country full of milk honey, and there is still a lot of hard work for the apostles of the sport.

Let us do this work selflessly, enthusiastically, and with firm faith and confidence in a brighter future, because football deserves to be nurtured with heart and love and to be led by purposeful work to the mountains of perfect art that shine in the sun.