| Title | : | The Names Heard Long Ago: How the Golden Age of Hungarian Football Shaped the Modern Game |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1788702263 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781788702263 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 336 |
| Publication | : | First published September 17, 2019 |
| Awards | : | The Telegraph Sports Book Award CLOC Football Book of the Year (2020) |
Only, how come the ideas from this team spread around the world? Why do Hungarian managers spring up in Italy, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, across Europe and the Americas, bringing their secrets with them? And what are the incredible stories they have to tell, of escaping the Nazis and the Soviet communists?
How did the history of modern football come to be born in the Budapest coffeehouses of the early twentieth century?
Fifteen years in the making, this new book from bestselling football historian Jonathan Wilson is the missing piece of the jigsaw; the forgotten story in football's history, lost in war, in revolution, in death and tragedy.
The Names Heard Long Ago: How the Golden Age of Hungarian Football Shaped the Modern Game Reviews
-
A deep, deep, deep dive into the Hungarian influence into the development of soccer across the world. Suited best for passionate fans of soccer and soccer history.
Positives: there is a ton of research distilled into this book and it covers the Hungarian influence in Austria, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, France, Uruguay, Germany, and even the USA. It gives a good picture about the immigration patterns and opportunities in the early twentieth century and how ideas diffused from place to place. And it is searing and unflinching in its examination of the spread of anti-semitism, fascism, and the Holocaust and how it affected Hungarian players and coaches.
Negative: You get dropped right In the start of soccer in Hungary with little idea that f why you should care about reading 400 pages of Hungarian soccer history. there are a ton of coaches and players to keep track of, none of whom I’ve heard before (except Puskas of course, who only appears at the end of the book) so it can be confusing at times. And the books structure doesn’t help. Instead of sticking with a strict chronology or chapters by geography, it does a mashup of both and so people you’ve left behind 150 pages ago make a sudden, confusing reappearance. Most curiously, though, there is little tactical discussion. I’ve read the author’s comprehensive book on the development of soccer tactics, but it would have been nice here to see exactly how and why the Hungarian style (and its later mutations) operated and why it was so innovative.
On the whole, I enjoyed the book, but its probably really only attractive to those that sit at the intersection of “soccer fan” and “history buff.”
Note: I was given an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. -
This is so much more than a football book, it’s a social history of Hungary, the level of research is amazing whilst also still telling a strong story. Some of the people in this book led such interesting and challenging lives, especially during the 2nd world war, it was hard to put down.
-
(This double-review was first published by Soccer America)
Soccer Books of the Year, 2019, Part 1: Goldblatt vs Wilson The Age of Football: The Global Game in the Twenty-first Century by David Goldblatt, (Macmillan)
The Names Heard Long Ago: How the Golden Age of Hungarian Football Shaped the Modern Game by Jonathan Wilson, (Blink)
Britain's most prolific and widely read soccer authors, David Goldblatt and Jonathon Wilson, have reached the stage where it has apparently become difficult to offer an objective assessment of their books. Reviews will point to their past works as evidence of quality, while summarizing the latest in the form of an extended jacket blurb. In the incestuous circles of soccer journalism, however, critics often seem too tentative to answer the most important questions: Is this book any good? And if so, is it good enough to make it worth reading?
Goldblatt's "The Age of Football" is not quite such an epic work as his shelf-straining history of soccer "The Ball is Round." Still, it's long enough, straddling the five continents to offer an overview of soccer's health. The overwhelming conclusion: the state of our game is not good. Corruption, poor administration, avarice and death blight these pages from cover to cover, with only the odd scrap of optimism thrown in to stop the reader closing the book and taking up embroidery instead.
In terms of its scope, "The Age of Football" is a roller-coaster ride around a theme park of greed and depravity, and is a comprehensive catalogue of the scandals and stadium disasters of the past 50 years. I can only recommend it as a work of reference, because unless you've been watching nothing but Real Madrid from the safety of a tint-glassed executive box for the past few decades, there is little new information in this book. There are no author-sourced interviews, and little research beyond the archives of readily available media and the internet. Reading it is like being hit over the head with a rhetorical hammer, and finishing the book is like walking out of the stadium after a 5-0 defeat -- your depression may only be tempered by relief that it's all over.
Goldblatt also has the machinated habit of backing up any point with a quote in the form of, "As [insert name] once said, [insert quote]." Over and again. Add to this the sporadic inaccuracies (there never was a team in Wales called Trans Network Solutions) and the endless, needling subjective asides ("Even Celtic, in a good year like 2016 ... were at best a strong Championship club." Really? How do you measure something like that?), and you wonder why Goldblatt's books are subject to eulogy. He writes in a cogent, attacking style, but maintaining that pace over several hundred pages is like sprinting a marathon. It's not long before exhaustion kicks in.
Nonetheless, if you want a book to goad you into a state of revolutionary anger (and there's nothing wrong with that), then "The Age of Football" could meet your needs. If you want to read a soccer book in a state of fascinated pleasure, then you might prefer Wilson's "The Names Heard Long Ago."
Where Wilson tops Goldblatt is in terms of readability and research. I believe that the two are connected. When Wilson scours the archives to unearth interviews or talks to anyone still connected with the Hungarian soccer scene of the early 20th century, it's the quotes and anecdotes that bring his material to life. That's no mean feat when you're covering teams and personalities that most of your readership might, at best, be only vaguely aware of.
So while reading about the players and coaches who gave Hungary such a key role in the formative years of soccer history, it's not important to retain any knowledge of how many titles Ujpest Dozsa won in the 1920s. What remains is the disparity of peripatetic Magyars who moved around Europe and the world, their chaotic lives and seesaw careers more often than not shaped by the political and economic situation both at home and abroad.
The middle section of the book, covering the period before, during and after the Second World War, is a profoundly affecting testament to the truth that sport may be important but, like all other aspects of mundane existence, it can be rapidly subsumed by the insanity of terror, violence and war. Players and their families you've come to love in the first section of the book disappear, last seen on trains destined for Nazi death camps.
The book lacks a linear narrative due to the nature of its material, and to contrive one would have been a dishonest reflection of the fragmented lives it depicts. Had it covered just one team, or even one person -- pioneering English coach Jimmy Hogan, say, or the utility player György Orth, labeled by Hogan as "the most versatile, greatest and most intelligent player I have ever seen" -- then the publisher would have had had an easier hook to sell it on. The strength of Wilson's approach is that it defies the demands of marketing for a simple selling-point. His books are so much the richer for it, and provide an engrossing read for all who are entranced not just by soccer's history, but also by the immersion of its characters into their social and political context. Massively recommended. -
Englantilaisen Jonathan Wilsonin jalkapalloaiheiset teokset ovat olleet varsin laadukkaita, mistä esimerkkinä vaikkapa taannoin suomennettu
Pelien peli: jalkapallon taktiikan historia.
"The Names Heard Long Ago: How the Golden Age of Hungarian Football Shaped the Modern Game" (Blink, 2020) paneutuu unkarilaisen jalkapalloon kunniakkaaseen menneisyyteen eli ajanjaksoon joka ulottui 1900-luvun alusta Neuvostoliiton tukahduttamaan Unkarin kevääseen 1956.
Wilson on perehtynyt aiheeseensa ja tehnyt ansiokasta tutkimustyötä monessa eri maassa ja useilla mantereilla. Se ei ole ollut helppo homma; vuosisatojen myllerryksessä ihmisten muistikuvat ovat sumentuneet, seurojen arkistoja on tuhottu ja kokonaisia maita on kadonnut kartalta. Jotkut yksityiskohdat jäävät varmistamatta tai epäselviksi.
Niin tai näin, melkoinen futistarina Unkarista kuitenkin sai alkunsa! Parhaiten muistetaan 50-luvun maaginen joukkue, Aranycsapat, jossa pelasivat sellaiset legendat kuin Puskas, Kocsis ja Hideguti. Neljän vuoden ja 36 ottelun tappioton putki katkesi tosin ikävässä paikassa, Sveitsin MM-kisojen loppuottelussa 1954.
Wilsonin mukaan useamman unkarilaisten pelaajan ja valmentajan olleen aktiiviisesti kehittämässä lajia vähän siellä sun täällä. Béla Guttmann luotsasi Eusebion johtaman Benfican menestykseen (kunnes kirosi sen), Erno Erbstein manageroi Il Grande Torinoa aina kohtalokkaaseen lentoon saakka ja välillisesti myös Uruguayn MM-kultaa vuonna 1950 MM-kisoissa voittaneen joukkueen taustalta voidaan löytää ripaus valkopunavihreää. Länsinaapurimme IFK Göteborgin ensimmäiset mestaruudet olivat myös unkarilaisten siiviittämiä.
Lisäksi kirjassa törmätään moniin surullisiin ihmiskohtaloihin 1900-luvun poliittisessa myllerryksessä. Holokausti, neuvostomiehitys ja unkarilaisten oma poliittinen turbulenssi riepottelivat myös jalkapalloa.
Lukukokemus ei ollut ihan niin tenhoava kuin olisin toivonut. Vuosikymmeniä kattavassa tarinassa tuntui olevan niin paljon erilaisia säikeitä ja henkilöitä, etten meinannut aina pysyä perässä, kenestä aina olikaan kyse. Syytän toki tästä myös rajallista kielitaitoani, mikä vähintään hidasti lukemista. -
For more reviews and bookish posts please visit:
http://www.ManOfLaBook.com
The Names Heard Long Ago: How the Golden Age of Hungarian Soccer Shaped the Modern Game by Jonathan Wilson recounts how the Hungary’s changed soccer and became a powerhouse exporting players and coaches to the world. Mr. Wilson the Football Correspondent of the Financial Times and author of other books on the subject.
One of my favorite memories is going to the 1994 quarter-finals for the FIFA World Cup with my father. We watched Bulgaria beating the defending World Cup champion Germany 2-1. To this day it is considered one of the top ten upsets in any world cup, and one of the top ten days I spent with my dad.
The Names Heard Long Ago: How the Golden Age of Hungarian Soccer Shaped the Modern Game by Jonathan Wilson is an enjoyable book which tells of the glory days of Hungarian soccer. The author goes into a bit of details into tactics and how the Hungarians coaches learned from England and improved the system.
The book gets interesting during the mid-1930s when anti-Semitism and Nazism enters the picture. Many of the soccer clubs, star players and coaches were Jewish. While some of them managed to escape, or survive World War II due to their skills and /or fame, many others didn’t. The author tells of some of their exploits trying to live through the war, only to be hit in the face with Communism when it was over.
Even though the Nazis did ravage Hungary, as well as much of Europe, Communist Russia managed to take the well-known, and feared, Hungarian national soccer team and destroy it. I still remember when Hungary was talked about as a fearsome adversary which I was a kid, and that was about two decades after this book ends.
The book is expertly researched, Mr. Wilson obviously loves the game and its history. The author is familiar not only with the players, coaches, management, and clubs, but is also aware how they interact and how one event reflects, changes, or cascades into others – some of which are repercussions felt today in the world of soccer. -
A carefully researched and well written exploration of one of the most influential countries and periods in football history and the slow and tragic demise of the teams, coaches and players involved.
Wilson's books are always a joy for a football fan but I don't think that is a requirement to read and appreciate this book. -
Very well researched book on the golden age of Hungarian football 1920-1956. Went into it only really knowing Puskas but the breadth of Hungary's influence stretched across most of Europe and Latin America too. Would recommend to any football fan/history enthusiast.
-
I had a difficult time getting through this book, mostly because Hungarian history with this many branches can quickly become overwhelming. It is a worthwhile study in the beginnings of professional soccer, but it is by no means a breezy 386 pages.
-
well written book but I have no interest in Hungarian football
-
Interesting book of Hungarian football history. Think ill keep it up, a couple of football books a year, obviously not for everyone!
-
3.5 - This got MUCH better after about 150 pages and it started discussing the diaspora going to South America and Italy. Really interesting in parts but not my favourite of his books.
-
“The Names Heard Long Ago” is an amazingly detailed dive into the history of Hungarian Football before the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Wilson tracks the lives and careers of some of the most influential players and coaches of the 20th century, and how the rise of fascism/anti-semitism forced many to take their talents outside of their homeland and spread the tradition of Danubian football from South America, to the United States, and across Mainland Europe.
The book picks up around the turn of the 20th century, just around the beginnings of Hungarian Football. While football is the main focus of this book, Wilson also explores how both world wars would come to have massive effects on the Hungarian national team and national league.
There are a lot of names and dates to keep track of while reading the book and it may be hard to follow but Wilson does his best to follow the careers of most players and coaches from beginning to end. This is overall a wonderful history book that not only focuses on football, but also on themes war, fascism, and anti-semitism that were all too common in Europe during this era. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has a solid interest for football and especially if you are at all a fan of history. -
Jonathan Wilson has a rare knack of matching quantity with quality. In the last three years he’s released Angels With Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina (2016), The Anatomy of Manchester United: A History in Ten Matches (2017), The Barcelona Legacy: Guardiola, Mourinho and the Fight For Football’s Soul (2018) and now the superb, The Names Heard Long Ago: How the Golden Age of Hungarian Soccer Shaped the Modern Game (2019).
Fans of Wilson’s work will be aware of his ability to identify historical trends and link those within a wider lens. His 2008 book, Inverting the Pyramid (updated edition it must be said), connected the dots between the Scotch Professors of the 1890s to the Barcelona of Pep Guardiola, stopping off at Dutch of the 70s, the Magical Magyars in the 50s and the Danubian School of the 30s. This book straddles the latter two periods, and clearly Wilson is very comfortable with the topic. If one was to speculate, a Wilson remake of ‘Midnight in Paris’ would see him venture back to a Vienna coffee house at the turn of the 30s..
The Hungarians themselves have always been of interest to me, one of the rare names, like Uruguay who seemed a remnant of a bygone time, like Wolves or Preston North End, a page in a Football History book that seemed disconnected from the world of now. Even the tragic ‘54 story was overshadowed by the Dutch, in their glorious technicolor, 20 years later. As for ‘38, I had to remind myself during the book that they reached the final, so I was excited to learn more.
There is familiar territory for Wilson covering Jimmy Hogan’s time at MTK of Budapest. His legacy and impact has been given greater prominence over the past decade, thanks to Wilson and others and he’s a key figure in the genesis of Hungary’s Golden Age.
The Austrian team, Hakoah Vienna or the ‘Unbeatable Jews’ as they were billed on a US tour play a major role in the book with MTK alumni and future coaching legend Bela Guttmann taking the MTK philosophy westwards. Guttman who cemented his legacy at Benfica in the early 60s is amongst a host of largely Jewish coaches along with Erno Erbstein and Alfréd Schaffer whose journey is covered with impeccable detail and illuminated by anecdotes.
The specter of World War II looms through the book as our timeline heads through the 30s and Wilson’s deftness in handling the tragic impact this has on so many of the major characters is exceptionally managed. It shows another dimension to his work and provides a reminder, if ever required, of the wide-reaching devastation the Holocaust had. Football was no exception.
Following the war, we cover the post-war building of the Magical Magyars or Aranycsapat , the Glory of Wembley ‘53 and the heartbreak of Bern one year later. This period is also surrounded by political turmoil with the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 signaling the end of the glory age and the departure of stars Puskas and Kubala to the West.
The Names Heard Long Ago ranks as one of Wilson’s best works. The research is superb, the writing flows and as he has done in much of his previous books, Wilson makes a case for those influential figures that history has forgotten or not provided the appropriate recognition. Wilson is most famous for his tactical writings but he is truly a football historian, who is both comfortable to reflect on the games long-term trends from a 1000ft but also dissect and describe individual small stories that make up the game we love.
Hungarian Football, from the 20s to 50s, may not jump off the shelves of a bookshop or online but this book is heartily recommended to anyone who loves the game.
If this book was a team it would be: Hakoah Vienna 1926 -
Found this a struggle to begin with but the wartime horrors this extraordinary group of footballers/coaches endured are just brutally gripping.
-
A very enjoyable and interesting read, interesting to see the influence of Jimmy Hogan on MTK and Hugarian football.
Lots of names new and familiar from Bela Guttmann to Erno Erbstein and Imre Hirschl to name a few. Such a huge number of Hungarian managers bringing the school of MTK around the World of football.
This book is also very sombre and sobering, with the advent of anti-semitism and Nazi persecution of Hungarian Jews and the fall of the Hungarian national team with the rise of Communism.
Although I enjoyed the book, I would have liked a bit more depth on the football side of things, it does heavily follow the exploits of the Hungarian managers and their effect but I would have liked more domestic detail. The book is heavy on social and political history of the times. Rightly so given how the events shaped the future and the past.
A good read and more enjoyable than The Barcelona Legacy. -
The research that went into this is just fascinating. Re-creating such fascinating stories out of all these 100-years-old sources written in all the different languages and created in an environment which loved to exaggerate and fictionalize everything seem like one of the toughest writing jobs one can imagine. Wilson manages perfectly and if his work has any flaws it is the opposite – he is fascinated by so many characters the reader often gets lost in between their stories. The focus shifts too quickly and one wishes the author would concentrate only on the main figures of Hungarian golden generation.
-
My first Jonathan Wilson that DNFed. Maybe tells more about my reading frame of mind, but he just went soo deep and detailed this time around that I've just kind of got lost in it. I'm still in the 1930s and we're nowhere Aranycsapat, that I just flaked out.
I guess the problem could be that some of the main characters and intriguing storylines were already in his other books. Also, there feels to be lacking of a stronger overarching narrative or structural tension a-la that one in the Argentina book of his... -
I knew a few of these coaches and players but had no idea about the scope of Hungary’s involvement in the worlds game from Italy to Sweden to Iberia to South America and beyond. Wow. What a fascinating and often heartbreaking story. Great read.
