Football at the 1952 Summer Olympics

Football at the 1952 Summer Olympics
Tournament details
Host countryFinland
Dates15 July – 2 August 1952
Teams25 (from 5 confederations)
Venue(s)6 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Hungary (1st title)
Runners-up Yugoslavia
Third place Sweden
Fourth place West Germany
Tournament statistics
Matches played26
Goals scored135 (5.19 per match)
1948
1956

The Football tournament at the 1952 Summer Olympics was won by Hungary.[1]

The games signalled the arrival (to Western Europeans at least) of the Hungarian national football team – the "Magical Magyars". Ferenc Puskás later said of the 1952 competition: "It was during the Olympics that our football first started to flow with real power."[2] It was during the Games that Stanley Rous of English Football Association invited the Hungarians to play a friendly at Wembley the following year.

  1. ^ "Football at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  2. ^ "Puskas on life and football". The Guardian. 19 November 2006. Retrieved 31 January 2013.