Hungary National Football Team - History - The 1990s

The 1990s

During the 1990s Hungary were not able to qualify for any international tournaments except for the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, the United States. The 1980s were considered as the most bitter years of the Hungarian football, but the 1990s proved to be the worst. In 1996 Hungary reached its lowest FIFA ranking (87). The fall of the Communist regime caused financial problems to many Hungarian clubs. Formerly successful clubs like Ferencváros and Újpest faced with financial crisis and bankruptcy. This had a deep effect on the Hungarian national team as well since earlier the biggest clubs from Budapest (Ferencváros, Újpest, Honvéd and MTK) produced the players for the national side. Another important reason for the decline can be attributed to the Bosman ruling. Since the Hungarian clubs lost the financial aid from the state in the early 1990s, they were not able to compete with the richer European clubs. The crisis in the Hungarian club football affected the performance of the national team.
The Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskás was appointed as the head coach of the national side in 1993 in order to bring back the earlier success. However, he led the team during only four matches. Consequently, the coaching of the former Honvéd and Real Madrid could not change anything. The only remarkable success in the 1990s was the qualification of the Hungarian national team for the 1996 Summer Olympics. Antal Dunai's team played its first group match against Nigeria and lost to 1-0 in Orlando, in the United States. In the second group match Hungary played with Brazil and lost to 3-1. The only Hungarian goal was scored by Csaba Madar. The last group match was played against Japan. Hungary lost to 3-2. The Hungarian goals were scored by Csaba Madar and Tamás Sándor. Although the Olympic qualification of the young team was a big surprise and people thought that Hungary would have a better future in football history, the team never reached any similar success later.
In the 1990s Hungary were the closest to qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup but they were eliminated in the play-offs by Yugoslavia.