His build was not the ideal athlete’s at all: he was 1,75 cm tall and weighed 83 kilos, a ratio that is undoubtedly not much favourable to a sportsman. László Kubala, however, never had problems with his size, on the contrary, he turned it into his force working hard on improving his endurance and never sparing any effort during the training.

His story of wandering footballer starts in Budapest, where he was born on June 10th, 1927. At the age of 12, he is forced to give up his studies to help his family. The workers’ club includes also a football club, and László Kubala gets into the club’s youth academy, which makes his mother happy, as she does not approve his liking for the boxing academy. After not even six months he gets to the first team and makes his debut immediately also with the Magyar junior national selection. At the end of the war he moves to Ferencvárosi TC, making his debut beside the most famous György Sarósi on April 29th,1945. In spring 1946 the SK Bratislava managers offer him a very lucrative contract and the opportunity to play with the Czechoslovak selection as his parents originally came from that country. At Easter of the same year Kubala flees from Budapest with his team-mate Sipos and, given the situation, Ferencvárosi TC have to accept the transfer of the player against the payment of 15,000 guilders.

His career in Slovakia is not fantastic though, he plays six times with the national selection, but the team does not satisfy him and so he goes back to Budapest to play with Vasas. He makes his debut with Hungary (3 appearances) but the following winter he decides to change his life: he does not like the communist regime and one night he flees from the country slipping into a truck bound to Wien. The Magyar federation intervenes and bans him for life. Therefore, Kubala moves to Italy to the small town of Busto Arsizio where the president of Pro Patria FC contacts him to have him supervise a football academy near Milan: many clubs chase him but their efforts, given the fact that he had been banned, are fruitless. In the meantime to keep in activity he plays with Hungaria, a team of players in exile that plays high-level friendly matches against Italian, Austrian and Spanish teams.

It is when Hungaria plays against the Spanish selection that Pepe Samitier, a very important manager of Barcelona FC, “falls in love” with Kubala’s footballing genius. Samitier offers the player a long contract in Catalonia and a brand-new passport. After long and feverish talks, FIFA give in. So he can start his “azulgrana” career, during which he gains the national title in 1952, 1953, 1959 and 1960 as well as 5 Spain Cups and the shirt of the national selection. Later Di Stéfano will say that Kubala was even better than Pelé because of his superb technique: in the pitch he always keeps the ideal position, can kick with both feet, can head the ball as much as other centre-forwards that are even stronger, and he always puts all he’s got in the ninety minutes of a game.

In December 1953 he is in the “Rest of the World” team on the occasion of the super challenge against England: he plays as an inside right, scores two goals, and is the number one protagonist of a very high-quality show. In those years the fights between Barça and Real Madrid inflame the “Liga”: on one side Kubala, Kocsis, Czibor, the fantastic Magyar trio, on the other side Di Stéfano, Puskás, Kopa, the peerless multilingual “cocktail”. On June 25th, 1961 he enters the pitch for the last time with the “azulgrana shirt” and his club invite Stade de Reims for the farewell match in Kubala’s honour. On that occasion Kubala invites Di Stefano and Puskas to play by his side. His footballing career, however, does not end at that time. He transfers to RCD Espanyol to play about 20 matches giving himself even the satisfaction to play beside his sixteen-year-old son on the right wing.

As a coach he guided the Spanish selection at the 1978 World championship, a tournament that he could never play as a player because of the vicissitudes of his life and of political reasons. He is the only player who played with the national selections of three different countries.