Ferenc Puskás

Hungary, 1927 – 2006

Considered one of the greatest football players of all time, Puskás scored 83 goals in 84 appearances for the Hungarian national team and won gold at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. However, when his domestic league team Honved visited Spain for a match in 1956, the Hungarian Revolution broke out and he, along with a number of other players, defected rather than return. He soon signed for Real Madrid, where he would win the European Cup in 1959, 1960 and 1966, five consecutive league titles, and score 512 goals in 528 appearances. He became a Spanish citizen in 1961.

Puskás was voted the sixth best player of the 20th century in 1999, behind the likes of Pele and Maradona