Hungarian football … What does an ordinary Hungarian man think first by saying this term? In the right case, the Golden Team. Less badly, the summer EB-fever of 2016 year, when we often blossomed our poor national affiliation, we chanted triumphantly singing in masses on the streets of downtown. In the worst case, the last defeat of the World Cup qualifier, when Andorra’s “bakeries, shepherds, and truck drivers” were victorious over our compatriots. World Championship after the European Championships? BANG, this bumpball boomed. But, we consider it important to bring back the hope of the football fans, so we prepare a mini-series that summarizes the cornerstones of Hungarian football history. Go on, guys, big air; we can rewrite history! The beginnings: the prehistory of Hungarian football… When did they think in our country for the first time that it was a good idea for more men to play a ball at the same time? The idea was already in the late 1800’s, and it was exactly in 1875: when Miksa Eszterházy, the founder of the MAC (not the computer – unfortunately – but the Hungarian Athletica Club – which is practically the most successful sporting association in Hungarian history, so it is no less merit). After that, various writings describing the rules of the game were published, so the sport became increasingly popular. At that time, before the turn of the century, Hungarian football associations had been formed – just to mention three big ones: UTE in 1885, MTK in 1888, and FTC in 1899. After that, the Hungarian Football Association did not expect much to do with its founding in 1901; and from then on the “uppercase” HUNGARIAN FOOTBALL was officially launched. Hungarians as young padavans As we know, we are a “rider nation” and the horse is far from the ball – so let’s admit, we needed a little training while we were a ball racer. At first, we had the charms of this craft from the Englishmens, because in the period there were more English guest games in our country. It was a pity to deny that there was something to learn, since our first official match in 1902 was a good learning aid: we suffered 5: 0 defeat by the Austrians. However, we learned slowly from our mistakes and then became a very successful national football team. By success – no stopping After the initial difficulties, the fate was fairly good: we were up to the point that in the 1920’s our club teams were among the best in Europe. Speaking of this period, we can talk about not least – such as a 12: 0 victory over Russia and a 13: 1 victory over France. In 1925, football was now directly developed into our strongest national sport. If you are interested in further details of Hungarian football history, read the next section of our series of articles, in which we will mention more interesting things!