The Names Heard Long Ago: How the Golden Age of Hungarian Football Shaped the Modern Game

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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.”<br /><br />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)<br /><br />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)<br /><br />The Names Heard Long Ago: How the Golden Age of Hungarian Football Shaped the Modern Game by Jonathan Wilson, (Blink)<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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."<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.

A very good book, which is always the minimum from Jonathan Wilson.<br /><br />Weaving football with history - not just that of Hungary but also across Europe and the US, when relevant - Wilson’s book taught me things I previously didn’t know about WWII, for example, and provided rich context to why and how what now seems like a fairly insignificant footballing country came to be so influential for much of the 20th century.<br /><br />

Englantilaisen Jonathan Wilsonin jalkapalloaiheiset teokset ovat olleet varsin laadukkaita, mistä esimerkkinä vaikkapa taannoin suomennettu <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/16122069.Pelien_peli_jalkapallon_taktiikan_historia" title="Pelien peli jalkapallon taktiikan historia by Jonathan Wilson" rel="noopener">Pelien peli: jalkapallon taktiikan historia</a>.<br /><br />"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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Niin tai näin, melkoinen futistarina Unkarista kuitenkin sai alkunsa! Parhaiten muistetaan 50-luvun maaginen joukkue, <i>Aranycsapat</i>, 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.<br /><br />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 <i>Il Grande Torinoa</i> 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.<br /><br />Lisäksi kirjassa törmätään moniin surullisiin ihmiskohtaloihin 1900-luvun poliittisessa myllerryksessä. Holokausti, neuvostomiehitys ja unkarilaisten oma poliittinen turbulenssi riepottelivat myös jalkapalloa.<br /><br />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.

fabulous book. Wilson really is brilliant - expert at finding all sorts of great niche knowledge and anecdotes which tie in well to the story. The book really is harrowing in places - reading about people’s experiences of the Holocaust will never not be unsettling. But this is an excellent book, really well-detailed stories of the great innovators of the game who largely go unknown in the modern, globalised world of football. Wilson tells the story of how football innovation globalised from Hungary into Western Europe and South America perfectly.

For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://www.ManOfLaBook.com">http://www.ManOfLaBook.com</a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.

In Jonathan Wilson's classic 'Inverting the Pyramid' there is a section discussing how the coffee houses of Vienna and Budapest were vital spaces for the development of football tactics in the interwar years. At first glance this seemed a bit far fetched, an attempt to bring an intellectual and literary gloss to the people's game. Notwithstanding in such a rich and diverse book it was easy enough to pass over onto something else.<br />However within the scope of a fall length book, Wilson is able to make a much more convincing case. OK, coffee houses per se might play a relatively small part but its clear that the influence of Hungarian players, teams, and coaches over a fifty year period from the end of the first world was was enormous. Building on the work of some enlightened British coaches (prophets not welcome in their own lands), a generation of Hungarians shaped the development of football in South America, Italy, and Germany. Many of these were Jewish and as the terrible events of the middle of the C20th unfold the story that emerges is tragic, rather than romantic.<br />A fascinating book. There are a bewildering number of names I'd not previously heard, meaning I doubtless missed some details but there is still more than enough to ponder. Henceforth Hungary will no longer just be the country that came from nowhere to end the myth of English invincibility with a 6-3 victory at Wembley. I'll think of it as one of the crucibles of the games development.

Fascinating subject matter, well-researched. The book could use a stronger organizing thesis statement, and more diligently followed a chronological timeline with that thesis. Wilson could’ve reminded the reader more of *why* the myriad stories being told matter. The author obviously did painstaking research, and it engulfed the reader in an undercovered but fascinating period of history, but perhaps summarizing or paraphrasing some of primary sources might’ve eased reading. The details build the world, but also bog down the narrative. <br /><br />On the other hand, more historical context from the field of postwar European history would’ve been very helpful, as would a touch more “zoomed out” context in the soccer world. This needn’t be long. What was going on elsewhere in Europe? How was Hungary similar or different? The author reading more secondary literature would’ve really aided the narrative and possibly helped form a stronger argument.

It's complete. There is everything about the most influencing people in Hungarian football in the first half of last century. It's like an encyclopedia, but well written and with a great plot. The stories are perfectly connected, giving new keys to read each footballer, trainer, manager. There is also a good historical background to understand some political features between the two wars and during WWII. A must-read for those who want to know how Hungary got to have the <i>Aranycsapat</i>, the most powerful team in the 1950s.