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László Gulyás awarded György Szepesi prize

24 Jan. 2018.

Magyar Rádió editor and sports reporter László Gulyás has received the György Szepesi Award in recognition of his achievements in sports media over many years, while the Emil Östreicher Prize was received by Ilona Diósy, the widow of famous Hungary and Ferencváros forward Ferenc Deák, as the third annual awards ceremony of the Puskás International Football Foundation took place at the Groupama Aréna in Budapest.

The Puskás International Football Foundation was founded on 1st April 2015, the 80th anniversary of Ferenc Puskás' birth. The charitable foundation aims to embrace, support and launch initiatives which celebrate the memory of the world-famous football legend Ferenc Puskás, coordinating the preparations for the forthcoming feature film of Ferenc Puskás' life. The Foundation's main aim is to annually award international prizes named after two people who are closely linked to the career of Ferenc Puskás, a great Hungarian personality, and this year the awards were presented for the third time.


Ferencváros' Üllői út stadium was the venue for Ferenc Puskás' international debut on August 20, 1945, a match in which he scored his first goal in the Hungarian national team and a fixture which featured the radio commentary of legendary broadcaster György Szepesi for the first time 72 years ago. Today's incarnation of this famous football venue is the Groupama Aréna which provided the venue for the ceremony held on Thursday, specifically in the Turay suite. György Szöllősi, president of the Foundation's board of trustees, is also the editor-in-chief of Nezeti Sport newspaper and FourFourTwo Magazine and president of the Hungarian Sports Journalists' Association and it was in his opening speech that he reaffirmed that every year a sports journalist dedicated to Hungarian football would receive the György Szépesi merit award and that the second award, the Emil Östreicher Prize, would be given to a family member of a famous former footballer.



This year's Szepesi prize winner László Gulyás started his journalistic career as a staff member of the 'Magyar Hírlap' newspaper in 1969 by László Gulyás. A eulogy by Sándor Dávid, another legendary sports journalist was read out in his absence by the official host of the event, Mátyás Molnár. György Szepesi himself had personally presented the award in the past two years but this time his health did not allow him to attend, his son János representing him at the event instead. In Mr Szepesi's place, the winner of the award in its inaugural year two years ago, Zoltán Novotny, and former top-flight footballer, current Honorary Chairman of the Budafoki MTE football club and member of the Board of Trustees of the Puskás Foundation János Jakab presented the prize to Mr Gulyás, who is of course well known in his own right.



The Emil Östreicher Prize - named after Ferenc Puskás's former agent who was team manager of Budapesti Honvéd in 1956 and the Hungarian national team of the 1980s - is awarded annually to a family whose members helped a former football star's career and life with the creation and maintenance of a relaxed family atmosphere. The award was presented by FIFA-licensed player agent Sándor Varga to Ilona Diósy, the widow of the famous, former world-class Ferencváros and Hungary striker Ferenc 'Bamba' Deák.


The eulogy to Deák was written by Attila Ballai, sportswriter and sports business department director at Mediaworks, and read out in his absence by György Szöllősi. "He was knicknamed 'Bamba' but he really should have been known as 'Bomber' ", Szöllősi said, referring to the extraordinary prolificity of the striker born in 1922 and who passed away in 1998. He scored 128 goals in 72 matches for Szentlőrinc AC shortly after the 2nd World War, 121 goals in 83 matches for Ferencváros and 53 goals in 77 games for Újpest, while he played 20 times for the Hungary national team, registering 29 goals. The 66 league goals Deák scored in the 1945/46 season for Szentlőrinc is recognised by the football statistics association IFFHS as the all-time European record for top-flight goals by one player in one league season.



The Szepesi Prize was awarded to Zoltán Novotny in 2015 and István B. Hajdú in 2016, while the 2015 Östreicher Prize went to Zoltán Czibor's sister Zsuzsanna, and last year's award to the family of Mihály Tóth. Both accolades are accompanied by one million forints of prize money.

 

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