GEELONG football enthusiasts are invited to attend a special presentation at the Corio Soccer Club’s Hume Reserve complex tomorrow morning, when the prestigious FIFA Puskás Award will be on show for the first time outside of Europe.

The FIFA Puskás Award is given each year to the player judged to have scored the best goal in world football and will feature as part of a whistle-stop tour of Victorian regional (football) centres including Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and the La Trobe Valley, in conjunction with Football Federation Victoria (FFV).

The regional Roadshow will kick off in Geelong at Hume Reserve, the home ground of Corio SC, which has its origins in the city’s Hungarian community. It will culminate in Melbourne on Thursday with the official unveiling of a special Ference Puskas statue at AAMI Park within Melbourne’s world famous sporting precinct.

FIFA Puskás Tour of Regional Victoria:
Official hashtag: #PUSKASVIC

GEELONG - Wednesday February 1, 2017

What: FIFA Puskás Award visit to Geelong
Who: Local football representatives including former Socceroo Steve Horvat, FFV General Manager Commercial and Media Anthony Grima and local and state government representatives TBA.
Where: Corio Soccer Club, Hume Reserve (Bell Park)
Date: Wednesday February 1, 2017
Time: Arrive at 8.50am for 9.30am start
RSVP: Email FFV Geelong Regional Administrator Tonci Prusac at tprusac@ffv.org.au

FERENC PUSKAS CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Ferenc Puskás is considered one of the all-time greats of the world game, with an extraordinary 598 goals in 614 matches for his native Hungarian national team which dominated world football in the 1950s, and for Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, among others. Puskás brought his unique football legacy to Australia nearly three decades ago when he coached South Melbourne to National Soccer League championship success in 1991 at the former Olympic Park Stadium.

The late Ferenc Puskás will take pride of place among sporting luminaries in Melbourne’s Olympic Park precinct when a bronze statue of one of the true giants of world football is unveiled at the site where he made his mark on the domestic sporting landscape.

Melbourne will become only the fourth city in the world to host a memorial statue of ‘The Galloping Major’, marking his contribution to the places where he left an indelible legacy including Madrid (Spain), Athens (Greece) and Budapest (Hungary).

The statue will be presented to the people of Victoria by the Government of Hungary, at an official commemoration ceremony on Saturday, 4 February to be attended by a visiting delegation of senior Hungarian government and sporting officials including Zsolt Németh, former Foreign Affairs Minister and now Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee for the Hungarian National Assembly. Local businessman and Australian delegate to the Puskás Foundation Board of Trustees, Robert Belteky, is leading the initiative on behalf of the Hungarian Government to commemorate Puskás’ contribution to Melbourne’s rich sporting heritage.

• Born: Budapest, 2 April, 1927
• Died: Budapest, 17 November, 2006
• Scorer of 83 goals in 84 matches with the Hungarian national team, and 512 goals in 528 appearances for Real Madrid.
• Member of three European Cup-winning teams with Real Madrid (1959, 1960, 1966) and the only player in European Cup history to score four goals in one game.
• Member of the ‘Magical Magyars’ (Hungarian national team), one of the most dominant sides in the history of world football (43 wins, 7 draws, 1 loss between 1950-1956).
• Defected to Spain following the Hungarian uprising of 1956, going on to represent Spain in 1962.
• Individual honours include FIFA Ballon d’Or Silver Award (1960); Spanish League top scorer (1959-60, 1960-61, 1962-63, 1963-64); World Player of the Year (1953); FIFA World Cup All-Star Team (1954); Football’s Top Scorer of the 20th Century; Golden Boot of the World (1948).
• Retired in 1966 at the age of 39, moving into management/coaching roles with the Hungarian national team, Panathinaikos (Greece), Sol de America (Paraquay), and South Melbourne FC (Australia) where he won an NSL championship, two NSL Cups, and two Dockerty Cups.