László Kubala (June 10, 1927 in Budapest - May 17, 2002), (also known as Ladislao or Ladislav Kubala, although Lazslo is the name on his birth certificate) was a footballer, born in Hungary, who played for Czechoslovakia and Spain as well as for Hungary.

Early Years and Career

Kubala's parents were from what was by then a part of Czechoslovakia. His father was Polish-Slovakian and his mother was Hungarian-Slovakian. Although Kubala had such complicated descent as well as playing with three different national teams, he never saw this as a problem and stated, when pressed to name his nationality, "I am a citizen of the world."

Kubala's first team was Ganz TE, where he played among 14-16-year-olds even though he was only 11. At the age of 18, he was signed by Ferencváros.

However, the next year he received draft notice and had to escape to Czechoslovakia in order to avoid it. Here, he played for SK Bratislava and the Czech national team, for whom he played 6 games and scored 4 goals. Laszlo Kubala's multinational career had begun.

Soon, however, he received draft notice in Czechoslovakia and had to go back to Hungary again to escape it. Since Ferencváros had been labelled 'fascist', Kubala decided to join Vasas . While there, he played 3 times for Hungary.

As the communists took over the government, however, Kubala had to pay some smugglers to take him to Italy. Once there, he and others formed a team and played exhibition matches. The team, comprised of Hungarians living in the area, managed to beat Real Madrid 4-2 in Madrid, the Spanish national team (who were getting ready to play in the ) and Espanyol. During the Espanyol match, scouts from Barcelona saw Kubala and offered him a contract. He signed it on June 15, 1950 and became a Barcelona player, beginning his career in a third country.

Many teams wanted to sign Kubala at various times, including Pro Patria , Inter Milan and Torino. In fact, Kubala agreed to play a friendly for Torino in Lisbon when the club was at the top of the game in Italy. However, in what turned out to be an incredible stroke of luck, Kubala didn't board the plane because his son was ill. On the return journey, the plane crashed, killing everyone on board.

Depite all this interest, Kubala stayed at Barcelona until 1963. While there, he played for Spain 19 times. After leaving Barcelona, he became player-manager of Espanyol, FC Zürich and the Toronto Falcons . He eventually retired in 1968.

Influence

It was Kubala who recommended such great players as Kocsis, Czibor , Kaszas and Szalay to Barcelona.

Ironically for a player born in Hungary, Kubala didn't do much to help their national team in their ambition to be the first foreign team to beat England at Wembley. In 1953, England had a gala match against the Rest of Europe. 7 Hungarians were selected to play in the game, but they refused because they had a match against England a month later and didn't want to help another side beat them to the punch. The subsequent withdrawal of Kocsis gave Kubala a chance to play and he scored two goals for the Rest of Europe side. If it wasn't for a last minute equaliser from England, Hungary's famous achievement would have been taken by the Rest of Europe team, thanks in large part to Kubala.

One of the biggest disappointments of Kubala's career must have been his failure - despite playing for three different countries - to play in a World Cup finals tournament. In 1962, he played in some qualifiers, but, just like Alfredo Di Stefano, he got injured before the finals started. Despite going to Chile for the tournament, he never played.

At Barcelona's 100th anniversary in 1999, fans voted Kubala as the best player ever to play for the club. He beat players such as Johan Cruyff and Diego Maradona to this honour. He was also chosen as the second-best player in Spain during the 20th century by sports journalists. Only Alfredo Di Stefano was judged a better player than him. Finally, he was awarded the Grand Cross of Sports by the Spanish government.