The great Hungarian striker Ferenc Puskas storied playing and coaching career ended in the relative backwater of Middle | dG1fTTk2eXl6bkZnYlU
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00:00If you did a poll of 100 journalists or people who know football and said name the 10 best
00:05players of the last century, 90% of them would have him in the top 10 players of the last
00:10century.
00:11FIFA have named the best goal of the year after the Ferenc Puskás.
00:15He was larger than life and literally was larger than life, he was a big man.
00:21I've no idea how we got Ferenc Puskás to South Melbourne, I'm looking forward to the
00:26documentary myself.
00:34Part of me wanted to show him who I'd become, to show him that I'd become a successful coach
00:41and have him feel a sense of pride that he played a small part in that.
00:51They were the days when flares were going off, they were the days when it was a little
00:55bit of racial tension if you like.
01:04To me it was something impossible, especially in Australia, to meet him it was something
01:10extraordinary.
01:11Certainly, Ferenc Puskás was not a fitness driven guy, if it rained or we trained a bit
01:17too hard, gym ball, enough.
01:21We were having a steak lunch two hours before the game, it's a little heavy isn't it?
01:25Now we didn't really know if there was any science behind that or it was just what he
01:27liked to eat before the game.
01:29What the boss was saying and what Jimmy was saying, there wasn't always a direct correlation.
01:34We needed an edge to actually tell us what Jimmy was telling us, what Mr Puskás was
01:38saying.
01:39That's it, South Melbourne, the National League champions for the second time.
01:45It's one of my favourite images, me lifting a trophy with Ferenc next to me.
01:50Ferenc Puskás has done it all.
01:56He had all of the characteristics of a great man.
01:59He had a deep empathy and a deep affection.
02:02That is my life, I like the football, I learned the football, but I like to play ten years
02:09more.
02:10The reason I play ten years more, I live ten years more.
02:14Where does he rank?
02:17That's for the historians.
02:18Where does he rank for us at South Melbourne?
02:21He's a king, you know, and it was just a fantastic experience.
02:26It was magical actually.