With the resumption of the Champions League and Europa League this month, less than a third of UEFA’s 54 member states can claim to harbour a vested interest in the ongoing dramas of Europe’s major continental competitions. Only 17 countries are represented in the knock-out stages of either tournament and such is the disparity in resources and talent available across Europe’s leagues that a number of major, and formerly influential, footballing nations are devoid of even a solitary club progressing beyond Christmas. For many, this has become an all too common occurrence since the turn of the millennium. However, the ravages of time and the absence of money are perhaps nowhere more keenly felt than in Hungary. Once able to boast some of the greatest players in the world and a revolutionary, all-conquering national side, the now less than magical Magyars are little more than also-rans in both the international and continental arenas.

“I have just returned the final workout of the Hungarians, there I saw 20 Stanley Matthews. Men who can do things with the ball that would be top-of-the-bill stuff at the Palladium. Not one man but every man was a complete artist.” To say England were scared would be an understatement. Daily Express reporter Desmond Hackett certainly didn’t see much hope for Tom Finney and his teammates as they prepared to face Gusztav Sebes’ Hungary side in Budapest, spring 1954. Six months earlier, the Hungarians led by legendary forward Ferenc Puskas, ripped Walter Winterbottom’s Lions to shreds in a now infamous 6-3 mauling at Wembley. It was England’s first ever defeat by continental opposition on home soil in 90 years of international footballing history.

The return fixture, which Hackett apprehensively previews, would only compound England’s misery and serve as an emphatic reminder that they no longer represented the gold standard of international football, despite the insistence of the haughty British press. Winterbottom’s visitors were comprehensively out-thought, out-played and out-muscled in a 7-1 humiliation, a scoreline that still stands as England’s record defeat. Hungary on the other hand were on the verge of their footballing zenith. A run of more than 50 matches in the early 1950s included just one defeat which would come later that year at the hands of West Germany in a contentious World Cup final, now referred to by Germans as ‘The Miracle of Bern’. Despite racing into a two goal lead, Puskas and Zoltan Czibor on target inside the opening 10 minutes, the Germans quickly pegged back Sebes’ charges and eventually overhauled them with an 84^th minute winner from Helmut Rahn.

Despite their crushing defeat, the Hungarians continued their irresistible form largely undeterred, remaining unbeaten in 19 subsequent international fixtures. However, their run was abruptly halted in autumn 1956 as Russian tanks rolled into Budapest to crush the Hungarian Revolution. Hungary had been a protectorate of the Soviet Union since the conclusion of the Second World War and after being subjected to forcefully imposed Soviet policies for over a decade, a dissenting student protest snowballed into a full-scale uprising.

At the time of the uprising, Hungarian club side Honved, on which Sebes’ Aranycsapat , or ‘Golden Team’, were based around, were on tour in western Europe preparing for a European Cup encounter with Athletic Club. Upon seeing the carnage unfolding in their homeland the Honved squad, which included Puskas, decided against returning to horrors at home and after being eliminated by Bilbao in a rearranged 2^nd leg at Brussel’s Heysel stadium, the team, without a home or a purpose, disbanded. Despite the threat of bans and calls to return from both the Hungarian and footballing authorities, the Mighty Magyars scattered themselves across Europe in self-imposed exile. Puskas famously teamed up with Alfredo Di Stefano at Real Madrid where he claimed three European cups while Czibor and inside-forward Sandor Kocsis joined Madrid’s perennial rivals Barcelona where they went on to win two La Liga titles.

The Mighty Magyars, as they became known, are defined by what the English press termed ‘The Match of the Century’ or what is simply referred to in Hungary as ‘The 6-3’ but their dominance and unsurmountable form was truly astounding over an extended period. Between May 1949 and the ‘56 uprising the Magical Magyars lost just twice in all competitions, winning Gold at the 1952 Olympics along the way whilst regularly and unceremoniously dispatching a number of football’s superpower nations. Those famous defeats of England were joined by an 8-0 aggregate score over the Italians across three meetings, comprehensive back to back defeats of the Scots in ‘54 and ‘55, a 6-0 triumph over ‘52 Olympic hosts Sweden in the last four, not to mention 4-2 wins over Brazil and Uruguay in the 1954 World Cup quarter and semi-finals after an astonishing 8-3 routing of the Germans in the group stages of the same tournament, 14 days before they met the same opponents in the final.

But Hungarian success extended far beyond their national side’s winning run and the now celebrated players they produced. Gusztav Sebes was one third of a group of progressive coaches; his successor Marton Bukovi and the eccentric Bela Guttmann completing the trio. They oversaw a tactical overhaul in the game and pushed us towards the variation and innovation in footballing strategy more prevalent today. At the time the ubiquitous 3-2-5 or ‘W-M’ formation placed a reliance on wingers, both tactically and creatively. Pacey, jinking wide-men such as Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney were almost solely charged with the responsibility of creating openings for a centre and two inside-forwards.

Sebes took the radical step of dropping his centre-forward, Nandor Hidegkuti, into what would now be seen as an attacking midfield or number-10 position. This afforded Hidegkuti the time and space between the opposition defence and midfield to wreak havoc and pick out Puskas and Kocsis ahead of him, who formed a conventional striking partnership. Combining this with the equally revolutionary step of allowing one of his two midfielders to retreat into the back three to form something resembling a now more traditional back four, Sebes and co practically invented the 4-2-4 formation, which eventually evolved into 4-4-2.

Meanwhile Sebes’ peer, and arguably Hungary’s greatest ever manager, the equally revolutionary Bela Guttmann, was in the midst of an eclectic and tumultuous 40-year coaching career which would take in, amongst many others, Panathinaikos, Penarol and Padova as well as a raft of Hungary’s top teams. But as the ‘50s became the ‘60s Guttmann moved to Benfica, a role which would define his career. Guttmann had spent the previous season hunting down and surpassing his new employers to win the Portuguese title for rivals Porto, before making the stunning switch. But Guttmann had only just begun. Upon his arrival in Lisbon he incredibly fired 20 first-team players, replacing them with members of the youth team and a young signing from Mozambique by the name of Eusebio.

Perhaps even more incredible was the fact that within three seasons Guttmann’s reimagined Benfica had retaken their league title and claimed back to back European Cups; becoming the first club to wrestle Europe’s top honour away from Real Madrid. The 1961 final saw Guttmann’s side overcome Barcelona. The Catalans, having dispensed with Madrid in the first round that year, also carried a strong Hungarian contingent, counting three of Guttmann’s countrymen in the squad. Kocsis and Czibor were joined by powerful forward Laszlo Kubala, arguably Barcelona’s greatest pre-Pep-era player – the man, as the story goes, that the Nou Camp was built for because their previous residence Les Corts was simply unable to hold the number of people who wanted to see him play.

After an electric Eusebio inspired 5-3 triumph over Puskas’ Real Madrid side in the 1962 final, Di Stefano handed the young Eusebio his shirt, a gesture that resembled the passing of a baton. Benfica were now Europe’s dominant force. Having achieved this with a degree of style and verve and with an almost completely new squad, Guttmann asked for what he saw as a well-earned pay-rise as reward for his astounding accomplishments. The Benfica hierarchy bizarrely refused his request. Flabbergasted and furious, Guttmann stormed out of the club, supposedly uttering the now famous words: “Not in a hundred years from now will Benfica ever be European champion!” Remarkably, after 8 successive European final defeats for the Lisbon club, ‘Guttmann’s Curse’ has held true. Eusebio was even prompted to visit his former manager’s grave in Vienna before the 1990 final to plead that he release his beloved club from the ‘spell’.

Despite the accomplishments of Puskas, Guttmann and the Golden Team, Hungarian football never recovered from the scattering of their golden generation around the continent and in 2015 the development of the Hungarian league and national side has stagnated. Hungary’s NB1 league is ranked 31^st of UEFA’s 54 member nations, narrowly edging ahead of Kazakhstan and Moldova. None of the league’s four European representatives were unable to make any headway in either UEFA competition this season. Champions Debrecen narrowly squeezed past Cliftonville in the Champions League’s second qualifying round 2-0 on aggregate before being ousted by BATE Borisov of Belarus and then Young Boys of Bern in the Europa League playoff round. Gyor, who only lost the league title on goal difference, were unable to make the Europa League group stages after losing out to Gothenburg. Ferencvaros and cup winners Diosgyor both overcame Maltese opposition in the Europa League first round qualifiers but couldn’t progress much further while Diosgyor were embarrassingly taken apart in an 8-1 aggregate defeat at the hands of Russian club Krasnodar.

Meanwhile, the traditional powerhouse clubs of Hungarian football have faded into obscurity in parallel with the state of the national game as a whole. Budapest’s Vasas were a prominent force in the Magyar’s golden era, regularly vying for major domestic honours. A European Cup semi-final encounter with Real Madrid in ‘57 and putting seven past Spurs in a successful tour of England in 1955 were two highlights. Now Vasas reside in the second division and without a league title since 1977. Puskas’ former club Honved haven’t won the league since 1993, finishing a lowly 9^th last season, just adrift of the equally uninspiring MTK Budapest.

MTK are Hungary’s second most successful club with 23 league titles to their name and became the first Hungarian side to reach a European final, losing out to Sporting Lisbon in the 1964 Cup Winners Cup and boasting Guttmann, Sebes and Hidegkuti as former players. Their latest league triumph came as recently as 2008; a success fed by a productive academy which kick-started the careers of Krisztian Nemeth, Akos Buzsaky and Marton Fulop, and was bank-rolled by Gabor Varszegi, a wealthy businessman and MTK fan. Varszegi rescued the club after relegation to the second tier in the mid ‘90s however, with abysmal attendances (MTK’s 12/13 average failed to exceed 1500) and Varszegi’s fading interest combined with his continual strive to run a profitable outfit, MTK have only slipped down the league. MTK’s bright academy graduates have been sold earlier than expected and often to their league rivals, only hastening their demise and widened the gap between themselves and their competitors.

Success has been sporadic at best for the national team too. Hungary’s last appearance at a major tournament came in Mexico ‘86 where, despite high expectations, Hungary fell at the first hurdle. Although they have rarely threatened to qualify since, a burgeoning hope had developed at the start of the decade with the emergence of some potential talent to spearhead the national team. Adam Szalai, Vladimir Koman and particularly Balazs Dzsudzsak were seen as bright prospects capable of restoring some pride to the crimson shirt worn so proudly in the past. But just as soon as hope appeared, it was again quickly extinguished.

The bulky, powerful, line-leading Szalai had his career halted in 2011 by a horrible knee injury which kept him sidelined for more than a year after a number of promising displays for Thomas Tuchel’s dynamic Mainz team and is only just beginning to show some of the quality he originally promised, now at Hoffenheim. Koman’s career never blossomed after a successful run in Sampdoria’s midfield and after being sold to Monaco in 2012, who were in Ligue 2 at the time, now finds himself back in NB1 with Diosgyor at the age of 25. Although pacey, skillful, direct winger Dszudszak is the most disappointing of all. After some mercurial displays for PSV Eindhoven, he found himself linked with a host of Europe’s top clubs before eventually deciding to make the surprise move to Russia and Anzhi Makhachkala for an eight figure sum and no doubt a sizeable wage. He only made 8 league outings for Anzhi before swiftly moving along to Dynamo Moscow, troubled by injury and out of form. Here, despite an upturn in fortune and form, he has been unable to recapture the spark he showed in the Eredivisie.

Earlier this year Jeno Buzanszky, the last surviving member of the Aranycsapat, passed away aged 89.  Buzanszky was the last of a generation that defined Hungarian sport, a rapidly fading era in which the influence of Hungarian football on the world game was undeniable. Their national team majestically swept all before them, their clubs took seats at European football’s top table and their coaches revolutionised the very way in which the game was played. Now a once triumphant footballing power sits forlorn, with empty stadia, devoid of real talent and bereft of the resources or the infrastructure to halt the slide.

In the build up to Hungary’s greatest moment, The Mirror Sport’s Bob Ferrier eulogised that our football was “on trial against their football, a science, a culture and an art at one and the same time”. Now over 60 years later Hungarian football still finds itself stranded under the shadow of their golden generation.