Source - Budapest Sun, 22 Nov. 2001Hungary’s international football legend Ferenc Puskás and boxing hero László Papp were honored by Budapest at the weekend by being awarded Honorary Citizenship of the city from Mayor Gábor Demszky.
Demszky said the sporting giants were given the awards "in recognition of their personal achievements in their sports and their contribution to the promotion of Hungary as a sporting nation."
The current Hungarian ladies’ water polo team were also awarded after finishing second in the World Championships and then winning the European Championships.
Puskás, 74, who captained Hungary’s legendary "Golden Team" to landmark 6-3 and 7-1 victories against England in 1953 and second place in the 1954 World Cup, spent several months in hospital due to illness earlier this year and looked frail and tired at the ceremony.
He had visibly lost some of his famous extra weight.
His delight was, however, obvious as Demszky handed over the award.
Seventy five-year-old Papp, who won three consecutive Olympic boxing titles from 1948 to 1956, and starred in the 1957 US film Heavy Gloves, was unable to attend the ceremony due to illness and his son collected the award on his behalf. Puskás’s award was however tinged with controversy.
According to former footballer Károly Ellenbacher, Puskás was originally nominated by a city councillor for the right-wing Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP), but this was initially disregarded for political reasons by the council, led by Demszky’s center-left Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ).
Ellenbacher, who has lived in London since 1957, said he and friends László Revffy and József Sraraus wrote to both Demszky and MIÉP leader István Csurka insisting that politics be left out of any public recognition given to Puskás.
"In the far future, the SZDSZ will have been forgotten, but Puskás will still be remembered," said Ellenbacher. ]
By Mitchell Craig
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22.11.2001