Lajos Tichy

Lajos Tichy was born on March 21, 1935, in Budapest, Hungary. He began his football career with Lokomotiv Budapest before joining the army club, Honved Budapest. He quickly demonstrated his scoring abilities. Positioned at the forefront of the Hungarian team's attack, he would score a string of goals. During his career, he would score more than 20 league goals six times, finishing as top scorer five times—incredible statistics!

But the man who would be nicknamed "The Nation's Bomber" would gain recognition in the media landscape as he gradually became the top scorer of all time. Counting a staggering number of friendly matches, a total of 679 over a 19-year career, he scored a total of 1,417 goals during these friendly matches, or more than 2 goals per game.

Also decisive in big matches, he participated in a total of 21 European competition matches with Honved Budapest, scoring 18 goals in various competitions, including the predecessor to the Champions League, the Mitropa Cup, and the Cup Winners' Cup.

With the Hungarian national team, the striker also shone, proving himself to be one of the best strikers in the world. In total, he played 72 matches and scored 51 goals for his country, impressive statistics for a post-1954 team and a Hungarian team rebuilding after the World Cup final defeat.

Having begun his international career in 1955 at just 20 years old, he scored a goal against Norway on his debut. He scored 12 braces and one quadruple for his country. But it was his ability to step up his game in key moments that truly captured the hearts of Hungarian fans. At the 1958 World Cup, he scored four goals, including one against Sweden, who reached the final.

Then, at the following edition, in 1962, he scored three goals, bringing his total to seven goals in eight matches. He also scored the decisive goal in the historic victory against England at that World Cup. Unfortunately, the 1953 European Youth champion never won any trophies with his national team, only achieving a third-place finish at Euro 1964.

Having lost his impact in his final seasons with Honved Budapest, the Hungarian striker finally retired in 1971 at the age of 36. He had scored a total of 313 goals in 384 matches for the club of his life.

- Voted Best Hungarian Footballer of the Year in 1959

- Top scorer in the Hungarian league in 1959 (15 goals), 1961 (21 goals), 1962 (23 goals), Autumn 1963 (13 goals), and 1964 (28 goals) (Budapest Honvéd)

- Named an honorary citizen of Kispest in 1992

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