October 21st 1953, England played a Rest of Europe XI to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the Football Association. Not many in the Wembley crowd were aware that they were witnessing the "death throes" of English superiority in international football. It is worth looking at England's international results prior to the event, just to see how international results for England were beginning to "even out". In this celebration match England needed a "dubious" penalty in the final minutes of the match to scramble a 4-4 draw and to maintain their historic record of never having been beaten at home by a non British or Irish team. England's goalscorers were Mullen 2, Mortenson and Alf Ramsey from a last minute penalty.
Just over a month later, the Mighty Magyars, Hungary turned England at Wembley upside down, laying waste to delusions of grandeur.
The FIFA XI was made from six European nations and was described in the Manchester Guardian as "a team that blended together like good tobacco"!! I wonder if that would be understood in this modern day?
Laszlo Kubala was one of the stars in the opposition, whose second goal was "a model shot. Whose side the Europeans couldn't shoot!" Unknown to English audiences, the Hungarian's early life had been spent mainly "on the run", fleeing from his national army, avoiding military service. After winning 6 Czech caps, he returned to Hungary and to play for his home nation, but defected to escape Communism. His national FA banned him frominternational football for life, so he set up his own team of exiles called Hungaria, having been spotted playing for Barcelona. He debuted for the Spanish club in 1950 and played in two La Liga titles for the Spanish club and three Copa del Rays in three years.
Kubala went on to play for Spain, though FIFA's stance on the Hungarian FA's ban was confusing. In 1954, having played in the World Cup qualification defeat in Turkey, he was ordered to step down in the resulting play off. The teams drew and Turkey went through on the "toss of a coin"!
SO despite being the only played to have been capped by THREE nations, Kubala never played in the World Cup and the Wembley crowd never knew about his "story" but they did see him play! The England team was:
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