Nándor Hidegkuti

The native form of this personal name is Hidegkuti Nándor. This article uses the Western name order.

Nándor Hidegkuti

Personal information
Full name	Nándor Hidegkuti
Date of birth	3 March 1922(1922-03-03)
Place of birth	Budapest, Hungary
Date of death	14 February 2002(2002-02-14) (aged 79)
Place of death	Budapest, Hungary
Playing position	Inside Forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1942–1945	Elektromos	53	(27)
1945–1949	MTK Hungária	110	(73)
1949–1950	→ Budapesti Textiles SE	30	(23)
1950–1952	→ Budapesti Bástya SE	51	(49)
1952–1956	→ Vörös Lobogó SE	92	(65)
1956–1958	MTK Hungária	31	(16)
–	Career Total	381	(265)
National team
1945–1958	Hungary	69	(39)
Teams managed
1959–1960	MTK Hungária FC
1960–1962	ACF Fiorentina
1962–1963	A.C. Mantova
1963–1965	Győri ETO FC
1966	FC Tatabánya
1967–1968	MTK Hungária FC
1968–1971	Budapest Spartacus
1972	Stal Rzeszów
1973	Egri Dózsa
1973–1980	Al-Ahly
1983–1985	Al-Ahly
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Nándor Hidegkuti (3 March 1922 – 14 February 2002) was a Hungarian football player and manager. He played as a forward or attacking midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career at MTK Hungária FC. During the 1950s he was also a member of the Hungarian National Team team known as the Golden Team. Other members of the team included Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor, Sándor Kocsis and József Bozsik. In 1953, playing as a deep lying centre-forward, he scored a hat-trick for Hungary when they beat England 6-3 at Wembley Stadium. Playing from deep, Hidegkuti was able to distribute the ball to the other attackers and cause considerable confusion in the English defence. This was an innovation at the time and revolutionised the way the game was played. This is now known as SS or Second Striker with players such as Francesco Totti and Wayne Rooney playing there today.

As a manager Hidegkuti coached clubs in Hungary, Italy, Poland and Egypt. In 1961 he guided ACF Fiorentina to victory in the first ever European Cup Winners' Cup, beating Rangers 4-1 on aggregate in the final. With Győri ETO FC he won the Hungarian League in 1963 and then took them to the semi-final of the European Cup in 1965 where they lost to eventual runners-up, S.L. Benfica. In Egypt, Hidegkuti coached Egyptian team Al Ahly, introducing a 5-3-2 formation.

Hidegkuti died on 14 February 2002 after suffering from heart and lung problems for some time before his death. MTK Hungária FC renamed their stadium, Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium in his honour.

MTK Hungária FC

Hidegkuti began playing for MTK in 1947. In 1949 when Hungary became a communist state, MTK were taken over by the secret police, the ÁVH and subsequently the club their name several times. Initially they became Textiles SE, then Bástya SE, then Vörös Lobogó SE and then finally back to MTK. Despite this turmoil, the 1950s proved a successful era for club and it was while at MTK that Hidegkuti, together with Péter Palotás and coach Márton Bukovi, pioneered the deep lying centre-forward position. With a team that also included Mihály Lantos and József Zakariás, MTK and Hidegkuti won three Hungarian League titles, a Hungarian Cup and a Mitropa Cup. In 1955, as Vörös Lobogó SE, they also played in the first ever European Cup. Hidegkuti scored twice as they beat RSC Anderlecht 10-4 on aggregate in the first round. After retiring as a player, Hidegkuti also had two spells as a coach at MTK.

International career

Between 1945 and 1958 Hidegkuti earned 69 appearances and scored 39 goals for Hungary. He scored twice on his debut on 30 September 1945 in a 7-2 win against Romania. Two years later, on 17 August 1947, he made his second international appearance and scored a hat-trick against Bulgaria. On 18 November 1951 he scored another hat trick against Finland. He became a central player in the Golden Team of the early and mid-1950s; during this time, Ferenc Puskás, Sándor Kocsis and Hidegkuti provided the Hungarians a total of 198 goals.

Hidegkuti was used by the Golden Team as a deep lying centre-forward. In the 1950's, the majority of international sides still used the WM formation, where the defending centre half would traditionally mark the opposition's centre forward - usually whoever was wearing the number 9 shirt. When a defending centre half attempted to mark Hidegkuti, they were drawn out of position, allowing the rest of the Hungarian team to exploit the space. At the time this was a revolutionary tactic, requiring the player in the deep lying centre-forward position to have excellent ball control, distribution skills and positional awareness.

Honours

Olympic medal record
Competitor for  Hungary
Men's Football
Gold	1952 Helsinki	Team competition

Player

Hungary

• Olympic Champions
  • 1952
• Central European Champions
  • 1953
• World Cup
  • Runner-up: 1954

MTK/Textiles/Bástya/Vörös Lobogó

• Hungarian Champions: 3
  • 1951, 1953, 1958
• Hungarian Cup: 1
  • 1952
• Mitropa Cup: 1
  • 1955

Manager

ACF Fiorentina

• European Cup Winners' Cup: 1
  • 1961

Győri ETO FC

• Hungarian Champions: 1
  • 1963
• European Cup
  • Semi-finalists: 1965 1

References

Sources

• Behind The Curtain - Travels in Eastern European Football: Jonathan Wilson (2006) [1]

External links

• Hungary stats at Rsssf
• Hungary stats
• UEFA obituary
• Observer obituary by Rogan Taylor
• [2]

Preceded by N/A

Cup Winners' Cup Winning Coach 1960-61

Succeeded by José Villalonga

Persondata
Name	Hidegkuti, Nandor
Alternative names
Short description	footballer
Date of birth	3 March 1922
Place of birth	Budapest, Hungary
Date of death	14 February 2002
Place of death	Budapest, Hungary