Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Puskas on sale

I read this article on soccernet about how Ferenc Puskas, the great Hungarian footballer, (in fact one of the greatest to have ever played the game) has to sell the mementos he earned over his career to pay for his medical expenses. The website reads "Ferenc Puskas is to sell more than 100 personal mementos of his illustrious soccer career at a British auction next month". He is an Alzheimer patient. I am appalled at the handling of this whole thing by the Hungarian government who have not done anything to help him out, despite of the fact that Puskas is by far the most celebrated sports person from the country. The FIFA is putting some bureaucratic crap about the whole issue. The FIFA president Blatter said: "We have already taken the decision to make a donation to Ferenc and Elizabeth Puskas. The only matter that is yet to be finalized is the amount". When are they going to finalize the amount? After he has sold all his medals? Some of the items mentioned include the Golden Boot awarded to him for his world record goals tally, his 1954 World Cup runners-up medal and a shirt signed by Pele. Anyone who plays any sport would know how much all of them meant to him, its a different thing all together that because of his condition he probably does not appreciate or even recognize them as his.

I believe there was a charity game organized by the Football Association of Hungary between Puskas XI and Real Madrid (a club he played for while he was still at his best) at Budapest to raise money for him. Here are some of the figures from that match -

The money raised and given to Puskas' family - 7000 pounds
The money Real Madrid charged to make an appearance for that game - 892,000 pounds.

I can't believe Real Madrid actually charged for appearing in a charity game for one of their former players. It disgusts me, I hate them more than ever now. The most (it would still be shameful and disgusting considering the amount of money they have) they could ask for was a travel expense. They made money out of it - disgusting!!!

I hope someone steps forward to aid him and his family. I don't know what all the rich clubs are doing? I am not willing to believe the only way a once reverred football star can save himself is by selling his mementos, where is the humanity people? I tried looking for some links where donations could be made, I couldn't find one. If someone else finds one, please let me know.


3 comments:

PS said...

disgusting indeed
searched after reading ur post and came across this nice blog post
http://mateszabo.blogspot.com/2005/10/insult-to-legend.html
From the post: Real Madrid's income this year increased 17 per cent to £183.8 million, yet they charged £892,000 to play the game, which included a hotel bill of £68,500 for their two-night stay at the Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal. One insider told Telegraph Sport that one room used for the stay contained only shirts and footballs.

Thats as cheap as it can ever get.

AJ said...

After reading all this, I HATE Real Madrid. I hope it burns down.

Nikhil said...

Yeah remember watching tapes of Puskas & DeStefano of the Real Madrid glory days.

Really appalling behaviour. But no point putting the entire blame on just Real Madrid. I wonder if there are any other clubs/individuals coming forward to help Puskas.

Sadly this happens with a lot of sportsmen around the world. Atleast in this case, the media came to know of it. Most of them just die in obscurity.