ALFRED BRÜLL SPEAKS
Jenő Árpádfy | 06/01/1940

The best team — the best player — a little bit about today.

— Please, and I won't talk! — protested Alfréd Brüll, President of Hungária and MTK. 

We tried to get the president to give his opinion on one and other topical issue, as many people are curious about this and are more or less obliged to do so by his position as president of his huge club.

In this sense, I am to the expression of opinion and duty as the shareholder in the anecdote is to the general meeting of a limited company. This person was dissatisfied with the way things were going, but he did not want to damage the share price by speaking in opposition, but was forced to speak. So he stood up and spoke: 

Brüll: Do you gentlemen think I am silent? No, I am not silent, I am just not speaking!

The interview begins with a reminiscence of the good times and great times of the past.

THE PRESIDENT TALKS ABOUT THE WORLD'S TOP XI

— Mr. President, you have seen many teams in your life, many matches... Brüll interjecs:

Brüll: But how much I've been annoyed.

... which was the best football team you ever saw play?

Brüll: It was Sunderland, the team that beat FTC 9:0 here in Budapest. Buchan's team! That was the team that played the most lively, the team that made the deepest impression on me. Even in an absolute sense.

— We thought that the Golden MTK would get the grand prize from President.

Brüll: No, before the great MTK I must also mention — I think — the Austrian Wunderteam. After that, the Golden MTK team. But I can tell you that 11 or 11 players like the Golden Team or the Wunderteam will hardly ever be assembled again in this century! In the same time and in the same environment, dozens of such great players are unlikely to be born again!

THE MOST GLORIOUS, THE GREATEST

— Who was the greatest footballer of all time? We ask the President to answer that question! In Vienna in the 1920s, a well-known former Hungarian international claimed to be Kálmán Konrád. 

President Alfred Brüll is looking at us slightly sideways with his characteristic head movement. As if to ask: are we serious about this question? Then he answers: 

Brüll: György Orth! Neither among the Englishmen of peace nor among any other nationality of players after the war have I found a footballer as great, as intelligent, as absolute as György Orth. He was playing for Orth at the time of the Vienna claim. Perhaps the Viennese had not yet seen him, and that is why they singled out Csámi, who was a great classic, a unique player of his kind, but not Orth! Orth! Everyone could have been or could be his butler today...

A BIT OF TIMELINESS

— And today? Who does Mr. President consider the greatest today? If you don't want to give a straight answer, tell us whether he plays for Hungária or for another team?

President Brüll laughs as he deflects the "bait": 

Brüll: We promised each other that we would not talk about today's affairs and people. Please, let's keep it.

So we don't talk, we remain silent. Alright. Then we'll just risk the question:

— Mr. President, do you believe that our football season in the spring will be better than the autumn? 

Alfréd Brüll suddenly starts moving briskly, which is a sign of interest:

Brüll: I don't really understand why our attendances have dropped so much. Because ours has certainly dropped. And Fradi's too. I'm very happy that Kispest and the provincials have increased, but that doesn't help us. As far as we are concerned, I can honestly say that ... it's true that our team did badly in the first few games ... but then we had four or five, or even more, good players who deserved a bigger audience and would have got one at other times! 

Alfréd Brüll continues even more vividly:

» At Hungária I can explain it, even if I don't understand it. But what was the reason at Ferencváros? After all, they say that Ferencváros is the most popular club ! They didn't even lack that certain advertising big drum. Yet so few people went to Ullői út.

— Do you think, Mr. President that Ferencváros did well in the autumn? 

Brüll: Well, it wasn't as bad as it could have been after the attendance.

The President adds:

Brüll: I'm not saying that the general situation is part of it. After all, there is a war in the world, and yet the atmosphere in which we live cannot be called calm.

HOW LONG CAN A GYPSY'S HORSE LAST?

The conversation is in a tailspin. From one subject to another. Since we are on the subject of audience numbers, the talk is of covering the shortfall. We ask:

— Mr. President, everyone knows and acknowledges with due respect that you make great sacrifices for Hungária. In the last forty years, or how many years, has there ever been a time when the blue and white club has not needed, or has received only a small amount of support from your President, you?

Brüll: No, that has never happened. Did I give large sums to the departments every year? However, this was my pastime, which I pursued as long as I had style, as long as I could do it gently and with particular pleasure. It is, after all, my individual pleasure. I find my pleasure in human sport, in the Hungarian world champions. In the fact that Hungarian boys have achieved world success in London, Amsterdam or elsewhere, thus making the Hungarian name world famous. Count Cziráky, in my younger days, used to drive a quintet of white Arabian horns through the streets of Budapest, and he sacrificed his life for this. He gives a lot for the measured horse race and so on. I give to human sports.