Sandor Kocsis

Sándor Péter Kocsis (21 September 1929 – 22 July 1979) was a Hungarian footballer who played for Ferencvárosi TC, Budapest Honvéd, Young Fellows Zürich, FC Barcelona and Hungary as a striker.

He began his career as a junior with Kőbányai TC, before joining Ferencváros in 1946.

Kocsis made his debut for the senior Hungary team in 1948.

Together with Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor, József Bozsik and Nándor Hidegkuti, he formed the offensive nucleus of the Golden Team that went unbeaten for 32 consecutive games.

Hungary also won the 1948–53 Central European International Cup with Ferenc Puskás as top scorer.

There, he won his first Hungarian League title in 1949.

He was then conscripted into the army and joined the army club, Honvéd.

His teammates at Honvéd included Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor and József Bozsik.

Kocsis scored his first international hat trick in a game against Sweden on 20 November 1949, and he scored a further one on 22 June 1952 against Finland.

During the 1950s, along with Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor, József Bozsik and Nándor Hidegkuti, he was a member of the Mighty Magyars.

The Hungarian national team suffered no defeats in Class-A international matches between 4 June 1950 and 4 July 1954, in the 1954 FIFA World Cup Final.

He finished as top goalscorer in the league on three occasions in 1951, 1952 and 1954 scoring 30, 36 and 33 goals respectively.

On the latter two occasions he was also the top goalscorer in any European league.

While playing for Honvéd, he was the top goalscorer in any European league in both 1952 and 1954.

He also scored 75 goals in 68 appearances for Hungary – a 1.10 goal/game average at the game's highest level.

During his time at the club he won three more Hungarian League titles in 1952, 1954 and 1955.

During the 1952 season at Honvéd, Kocsis was the world's top goalscorer in world 1st division football with 36 goals.

Kocsis also scored six goals at the Olympics in Helsinki as Hungary became Olympic Champions in 1952.

On 19 October 1952, he scored his third international hat trick in a game against Czechoslovakia.

In 1953, Hungary defeated England 6–3 at Wembley Stadium and then in 1954 by 7–1 in Budapest.

During the latter game, Kocsis added a further two goals.

Kocsis was the top goalscorer in the 1954 World Cup with 11 goals, a record at the time for goals in a single World Cup.

That year he scored 23 goals with his national team, the most by any player during a calendar year.

He was also the first player to score two hat-tricks in a World Cup.

His 2.2 goal/game average in the World Cup finals is second only to that of Ernst Wilimowski (Poland) who scored four goals in his only World Cup match, and only Just Fontaine has scored more goals than Kocsis in a single World Cup.

He is the joint second most prolific goalscorer in national team matches in all levels in recorded history according to the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) with 124 goals scored.

Kocsis was particularly known for scoring headers.

His 1.103 goals/game average is ranked No.1 for players past 43 caps in FIFA class-A competition, closely followed by Gerd Müller with 1.097 goals/game (68 goals in 62 games).

They are the only two players in history above a +1.0 goals/game average encompassing over 43 internationals.

Sándor Kocsis registered a national record of seven hat tricks for Hungary, including a four-goal haul against West Germany at the 1954 World Cup.

Kocsis was born in Budapest.

He repeated that feat in 1954 with 33 goals.

He finished the 1954 World Cup as top goalscorer, scoring 11 goals including two hat tricks, the first of the three players that achieved this.

In the opening game he scored his first hat trick of the tournament against South Korea as Hungary cruised to a 9–0 win.

In the next game against Germany, he went one further and scored four of the goals in an 8–3 win against the understrength team of coach Sepp Herberger.

In the quarter-finals Hungary played Brazil in a game referred to as the Battle of Berne: Kocsis scored twice in an encounter which saw Hungary win 4–2.

Hungary then reached the final after they defeated reigning World champions Uruguay in the semi-finals.

After the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he moved to Spain where he became a member of the FC Barcelona team of the late 1950s.

Kocsis was a prolific goalscorer for both Budapest Honvéd and Hungary.

Ferenc Puskás with .99 goals/game (84 goals in 85 matches) is currently ranked 3rd.