Memorials

Ferenc Puskás Street

The capital city assembly amended one of its rules so that one year after Puskás’ passing, the street leading to the entrance of the Bozsik stadium could be renamed after the most famous person to have been born in Kispest.

It was necessary for the mayor of Budapest to make a proposal in order for the capital city assembly to change its long-existing rule which stated that no public space could be named after any person who had died in the last quarter of a century. Zoltán Asztalos, previously an employee of Honvéd, had already started the campaign to name a street after Ferenc Puskás during his lifetime while more than 10,000 people had voted in a poll run by Hungary’s only daily sports paper for a Kispest street to be named after Kispest’s most famous son. In the end the struggle was successful and under the new regulation honorary citizens, Nobel prize winners and Olympic champions could be exceptions to the existing rule.

What followed was that on 2nd April 2007, the day after the 80th anniversary of Puskás’ birth, a memorial plaque was unveiled and a symbolic street sign placed at the entrance to the Bozsik Stadion out of respect to the legendary former captain of Honvéd and the ’Golden Team’. Half a year later on 17th November 2007, the anniversary of Puskás’ passing, the street which had previously been named Újtemető utca and led to the entrance of Budapest Honvéd Football Club and the Hungarian Football Academy, was named after him, thenceforth being known as Puskás Ferenc utca 1-3. The Kispest district council and the local club organised the ceremony and laid a commemorative wreath to mark this change in name, while flowers were laid at the memorial plaque by representatives of the city and district councils, the Hungarian Football Federation, Budapest Honvéd and the Ferenc Puskás Foundation.