Kubala, a lagoon in the memory of Hungary

Tibor Kocsis you will never forget a dinner in 2008 in a hotel in Amsterdam when you shared a table and tablecloth with a Catalan, an enthusiastic Barça fan, who told you about Ladislao Kubala. It was the first time I heard that name. How was it possible? He wondered. The same thing happened to Krisztian Varro, raised in a Hungary that still remembered the golden years of his football. “Each one of us began to look for information. Now we have come together years later”, they comment from Budapest.

Varró wrote a book entitled Kubala in 2019 in which he delves into the personal and sports history of what was a crucial Barcelona player since his arrival in 1950. Kocsis released a documentary entitled Hungarians for Barça that he presented in 2016 at the Camp Nou and that told the story of Kubala, Czibor and Kocsis, the three Hungarians who arrived in the 1950s after fleeing the country. Now they tackle another project: making a Kubala movie. “We want to show his history around the world, especially his years at Barcelona,” they comment.

How was that anonymity possible? “Before it was forbidden to talk about the players who had left the country, they were traitors. The match scorers never appeared so that no one would read the names of Puskas, Kocsis, Czibor… And less Kubala“Kocsis explains. Varró gives an even more hilarious example:” In the 1978 Champions League final, Bruges lost to Liverpool. In the Belgian club there was a Hungarian named Lajos Ku. The commentator couldn't say his name, so he called him number ten. “

The childhood, the flight and the reunion with his mother

Varró and Kocsis have spent ten years of documentary work on Kubala's childhood and they do not have “evidence” of some details that were installed over time as absolute truths. One of them is that the footballer's father was a Ferencvaros player and his son was a ball boy. “He did not play for the first or second team. He was very fond of the club, yes, and that's why his son always dreamed of being a player for Ferencvaros,” explains Kocsis. His father and mother worked to support their son, who also had to leave school at the age of 14 and go to work in the factory. In his spare time, he played in the ‘grund’ (spaces designed for children to play football) in his humble neighborhood on Örömvölgy Street, in the eighth district, a poor area. “He was one of the best playing in those parks. He was aware that he was good and could be a professional. At 15 he took the step and was already earning more than his parents“, explains Varro.

His first club was Ganz and then, in 1945, he was signed by Ferencvaros. But his father couldn't enjoy it too much. Sick, he passed away when his son's team was about to win a title that finally eluded him. With a Budapest destroyed by war, Kubala spent two years in Czechoslovakia until in 1948 he returned to Vasas. “They promised him that in a year he will be able to go to Italy, which was his dream, but the communist party began to dominate the political map and prevented anyone from leaving the country. Kubala decided to go alone. He crossed the border at night in a van dressed as a Russian military and left his mother and his girlfriend behind “, comment the two authors of his life. “Kubala made very tough decisions. This was it. If he is caught, arrested or killed,” they sentence.

After passing through Italy, he finally ended up at Barcelona thanks to Samitier. The history of his successes is already known, although there was another moment for posterity, which was the reunion with his mother in 1961, 12 years after his departure. “Kubala had helped Osterreicher become Real Madrid's technical secretary, who also signed Puskas. Kubala and Puskas are from the same year and were born in the same district of Budapest“, the story Varró begins.”In the 1961 European Cup, Real Madrid beat the Hungarian Vasas 0-2 and Santiago Bernabéu, with the help of diplomacy, made the necessary arrangements for the reunion between Kubala and his mother. They met again and she later came to spend Christmas in Barcelona. Kubala first returned to Budapest in 1976 for his mother's funeral. 28 years had passed since his departure“, Kocsis details.

A popular footballer in Spain, extraordinary player and coach of the National Team, teacher of several generations. In Hungary, little by little, his figure began to transcend thanks, mainly, to the work of Varró and Kocsis. Kubala is no longer a gap in the memory of Hungarian football.