A now hardly remembered soccer great passed away this week. His life (1924-2005) recalls the vicissitudes and heartbreaks, some of us would say inanities, of the last century but also the great teams, personalities and memorable games of European soccer history. Istvan Nyers, a Hungarian left-wing of the old school developed as a player playing along Hungarian legends Lazar, dr. Sarosi, Puskas and Hidegkuti, played two internationals for Hungary (of course could have been many more, see below), then played for Internacionale of Milan from 1948 to 1954 where he partnered Italian idols Lorenzi and Nesti, scored (and these were admittedly different times) one-hundred-and-thirty-three goals for the nerazurri. Laszlo Hoppe, the superb Hungarian soccer writer who was Nyers’ contemporary wrote that “he had all what we could ask of a winger; pace to haul along an entire attack formation, devilish faints, superb service and inimitable shooting; I vote for Him ! He is my all-time eleven’s left-wing”. He was born in 1924 in Merlebach, France where his father, a Hungarian miner, migrated in search of work. Within a few years the family returned to Hungary and the teenager Pisti Nyers was an avid youth player at various Budapest clubs. In the early forties, with Central Europe and the Balkans in political turmoil, an agent took him to Subotica (Szabadka for Hungarians), a town in the southern regions of historic Hungary that was deeded to Yugoslavia in the post World War I realignments but then reattached to Hungary. Nyers quickly established himself as a starter for the town’s first division team and had a couple of excellent seasons with them. He also took a Serb bride whose brother played for Crvena Zvezda Belgrade. With soccer’s interceding, he became a southern-region Hungarian, an adopted Szabadkan and “half” Serbian. World War II ended in Hungary in April of 1945 and by September the ’45-’46 season was on. Nyers joined Ujpest in the Hungarian capital, a top Hungarian and European club of the thirties and performed superbly at left wing. Two national team call ups soon followed but in 1947 he decided to try his luck in the West. Perhaps his birth in France, perhaps an agent’s tall tales or just raw craving for adventure made him decide to leave Hungary despite looming sanctions, lack of citizenship and forfeiting a national team career. Soon he was chasing the ball for Stade Francais where Helenio Herrera (the Magico) spotted him and he was on his way to Inter. Needless to say, Herrara was bombastic about Nyers yet certainly not without foundation. On September 18, 1948 he debuted against Sampdoria with a hat-trick in a 4:2 Inter victory. Goals, goals, goals: Nyers was Serie A capocannoniere (top scorer - 30 goals) in ‘49-‘50, repeated in ‘50-‘51 with 31 goals and followed with similar contributions from ‘52 through ‘54 when Inter took consecutive scudetti. The following chart renders Istvan Nyers in elevated company: when Milan’s Shevchenko reached the 100-goal mark in Serie A in his sixth season, it was remembered that only five foreign players have done it quicker: Gunnar Nordahl and Istvan Nyers (four seasons), Omar Sivori, Jose Altafini and John Hansen (five seasons). All in all, Nyers played two hundred and thirty six Serie A games and scored one-hundred-and–fifty-three times. But which one may have been the most memorable one ? Nyers himself said in an interview that it had to be a 6:5 ( ! ) victory over Milan in 1952 with he scoring Inter's sixth (he barely made it to the dressing room in only his briefs after that one) but he also fondly remembers an Inter-Bari match when, having scored five times in the first half, he seemed on track to tie or surpass Italian myth and marvel Silvio Piola’s seven-goal-single-game record. He did hit the woodwork close to half a dozen times in the second half, but Piola’s record stood and still stands. Hungarians still speculate, had Nyers played for Hungary in the 1954 World Cup what difference would it have made. The Golden Team did have world-class Zoltan Czibor at left-wing, yet, with a bit more goal getting ability and San Siro earned grittiness he might have made a difference for finalist Hungary. He himself said that the Hungarians were eager to have him back for the tournament (although unlikely to have been able to pull it off given the harsh East-West political climate of the fifties) and that Inter did not want to let him do it. Promises of Italian citizenship, the great affection and adulation for their “Stefano” (and the Iron Curtain) made the idea mute. So Istvan (also “Etienne”) Nyers was stateless, did not play on any national team again and would not be invited for any all-Europe or all-World assemblies (then a greater honor than today’s all too often “soccer celebrity” games) due to the same reason. The official Inter website said in its brief notice of his passing that he died in “extreme poverty”. I tend to believe more the interview he gave last year to Hungary’s Het Nap magazine when writer Karoly Dudas reported that he lived happily, if in humble circumstances in Subotica with his second wife, with his memories and on a stipend from Inter. And he did finally acquire a citizenship, that of Yugoslavia (Serbia). Nevertheless, La Gazzetta dello Sport printed this headline for it’s obituary notice: “Addio Nyers, bomber apolide” – Good-bye Nyers, the stateless bomber.
The inclusion of Nyers in 54 may have made a difference but Puskas was playing injured in the WC 54 Final and that was Hungary's weak point. Hungary just needed a fit player on the field but on that day luck wasn't on their side. On that day the problem wasn't about having good or bad players, it was about having fit or unfit players. Piola is one of Italy's greatest players. To have almost equal a record Piola had must be saying something.