BUDAPEST, Nov 17 - Hungarian soccer great Ferenc Puskas, the best player of his generation and talismanic member of the nation's "Golden Team" of the 1950s, died in hospital on Friday aged 79 after a long illness.

Hungarian soccer legend Ferenc Puskas sits in his hospital room in Budapest in this September 23, 2005 file photo. Puskas died in hospital on November 17, 2006, following a long illness, national news agency MTI said. [Reuters]

Puskas, who was known as "Little Brother" in Hungary, "The Galloping Major" in England and the "Booming Cannon" by Real Madrid fans, died at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT), his biographer Gyorgy Szollosi told Reuters.

"The exact cause of death was cardiovascular and respiratory failure triggered by pneumonia," Szollosi said.

His funeral will be held on December 9, the international committee organising the ceremony said in a statement.

In the evening friends, former nationals and Hungarian citizens remembered Puskas with candles and flowers at a photo of him outside the building of the Football Association. The government declared December 9 a day of national mourning.

Puskas's family appealed in a statement for dignified mourning and parliament held a one-minute silence on Friday.

"The best-known Hungarian of the 20th century is gone," Hungary's Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said in a statement.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter hailed Puskas as the greatest Hungarian player of the past 50 years. In a letter of condolence to the Hungarian Football Federation Blatter said the forward was "one of the greatest players that I have seen in my life".

Puskas, whose international scoring record of 83 goals in 84 games stood until 2003, won Olympic gold with Hungary in 1952, league titles with his Hungarian club Honved and with Real Madrid, with whom he also won three European Cups.

"This is a real tragedy for Hungary and specifically for us, his friends. I am on the verge of tears... the biggest sportsman of the country is no longer," national news agency MTI quoted former international team mate Jeno Buzanszky as saying.

Puskas was the inspiration behind the "Magical Magyars", the Hungarian national side that sensationally beat England 6-3 in 1953, the first foreign side to win at Wembley.

"My memories are that I have never seen the likes of ... as a team or an individual," former England striker Tom Finney, who was injured for that game, told BBC Radio.

As the last millennium drew to a close, Puskas was voted the 20th century's fourth best player by the International Federation for Football History and Statistics.

MADRID RESURRECTION

Born in April 1927, Puskas began his career in the domestic league aged 15 and won his first international cap three years later, scoring on his debut against neighbours Austria.

He was a key member of Hungary's 1950s team that lost just one match -- the 1954 World Cup final -- in six years.

That side was devastated by Hungary's anti-communist uprising in 1956, after which Puskas went into exile.

1

2