The summer Kubala went into exile in Portocristo

PalmMateu Mas, 75, is the president of the Miquel Àngel Nadal Barcelona supporters' club in Manacor. The Barça player was 23 years old when he landed on the Manacor coast, at a time when Franco was still imposing self-sufficiency.

Born in Budapest in 1927, László Kubala Stecz already showed promise in football as a child, first with Ganz and then with Ferencvarosi. At 18, he left for the former Czechoslovakia to avoid military service. He eventually joined Slovan Bratislava. His successes led him to wear the Czech national team jersey. In 1948, he returned to his native Budapest, where he played for Vasas. He also played for the Hungarian national team, just before they became the "Golden Team," the powerful footballing machine led by Ferenc Puskas.

Fugitive Team

After World War II, Kubala felt increasingly oppressed by a communist regime that considered professional sports a capitalist vice. His dream was to pursue a football career like that of the players on the other side of the Iron Curtain. So, in 1949, he decided to flee. With other teammates, he boarded a truck dressed as a Russian soldier headed for Austria. He eventually moved to Italy, where he signed for Pro Patria. Turin soon courted him. He was due to make his debut in a friendly match against Benfica in Lisbon. But a cold prevented him from traveling. Little did he know how lucky he would be. On the return trip, the plane carrying the Italian team crashed in the Superga hills. The entire squad died. The Hungarian Football Federation was quick to pressure FIFA to punish "traitors to the homeland" like Kubala. They banned him from playing in official matches for a year.

Faced with this new setback, the Budapest star created a team of exiles, which would also include Czechs, Romanians, and Yugoslavians. He called it Hungaria. It would be led by Ferdinand Daučik, his coach at Slovan and his brother-in-law. It would be a nomadic team, without a home ground or members. In compliance with FIFA regulations, they would be paid to play exhibition matches in Western Europe. It was a way to continue making a living from sport and gaining recognition in the market.

In May 1950, Hungaria sent a letter to Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu asking for a friendly match. The manager of the Real Madrid team was delighted with the offer. It was the perfect opponent to prepare for the World Cup in Brazil. The match took place at the Chamartín Stadium on June 5. Despite being defeated 4-2, the group of fugitives put on a good football performance. From Mallorca, the president of CD Manacor, Catalan meat businessman Isidre Abellanet, was keeping an eye on them. He had the idea of offering them Portocristo as a base of operations from which to play matches. They would play more matches against the Spanish national team, Espanyol, and Deportivo de A Coruña.

"He was very friendly."

One of the members of that team of vagabonds was the Hungarian Georg Mogoi, who would be the first foreign player in the history of RCD Mallorca. In August 1967, he gave an interview to Mallorca Diary, in which he spoke of his arrival on the Manacor coast in June 1950: "It was a quiet, beautiful, and uncomplicated town. Marick, Hrotko, and Kubala and I talked more than once about staying here for life."

Mateu Mas, president of the Manacor Barcelona supporters' club, has compiled information from oral sources about Hungaria's stay in Portocristo. "Not everyone was here. Kubala stayed at the Oriente guesthouse, although he often ate at the Hotel Perelló. He trained on the beach, but also went to a small football pitch in the city. He was already a world figure. Everyone was watching him." A few years ago, journalist and historian Sebastià Sansó was able to collect the last living testimonies of that visit. One of them was that of the legendary cartoonist Tòfol Pastor. Pifol, who died in 2023 at the age of 103. "I used to train," he said, "even with his young son. I would put two chairs on the hotel terrace and have him kick the ball, trying to get it to go through the middle."

One of the children who was amazed by the brilliance of those players was Joan Brunet Camel. "We were always waiting for them on the beach," he told Sansó. "They were all good people, but Kubala in particular was very nice to us and even let us play with him. Everything was new; we'd never seen football shirts with numbers on the back or soccer balls before. [...]. It was about 50 meters from the sand to the water. It was impressive, I couldn't believe it."

Sansó discovered the story of Kubala's stay in the region by chance. "The godfather ran the Bar Turismo in Manocor. One day, while I was filling up at the bar's tills, I found a photo of the Hungaria team dressed in white. It was from a match they played against Manacor at the Capellera stadium. 4-0. Franco was delighted to have 'communist deserters' playing in Spain."

Signed for Barça

Since his performance at Chamartín, Madrid had been keen to sign Kubala. However, the Hungarian demanded as a condition that he bring his team's coach and brother-in-law with him. Santiago Bernabéu flatly refused. Barça's president at the time, Agustí Montal, didn't want to waste the opportunity. On July 27, the Barça club's technical secretary, Josep Samitier, a Real Madrid player with a Real Madrid background, arrived in Portocristo. There were no problems with the player's demands, which the rival team had rejected. At that time, Hungaria had just dissolved, and its members had begun signing contracts. amateurs with teams from the Spanish First Division.

To resolve the outstanding conflicts with FIFA, on June 1, 1951, Samitier managed to get Franco to grant Kubala Spanish nationality on an emergency basis. The dictatorship did not hesitate to present him as a fugitive from the 'red terrorwho had opted for peace and freedom. That process led to the Hungarian's Catholic baptism in Águilas (Murcia), the town where the president of the Federation was based. On April 29, 1951, the player was able to make his debut for the Blaugrana shirt. On July 5, 1953, he would do so with the Spanish national team against Argentina. He thus became the only footballer in history to have played for three different national teams. After four years, in order to finalize Kubala's contract, the Catalan club had to compensate the Hungarian club that had left him with a valid contract.

Di Stéfano

In 1952, Barça's target was another promising footballer, 26-year-old Argentinian Alfredo Di Stéfano. At the time, although he played for River Plate, he was playing illegally for Millonarios in Bogotá. Samitier met with him in the state capital after a friendly between his team and Real Madrid. The footballer confessed his dream of playing alongside Kubala. By May 24, he was already training at the old Les Corts stadium. Santiago Bernabéu, however, was unwilling to let their eternal rival score another goal. With Franco's approval and through a fraudulent maneuver by the Federation, they arranged for Di Stéfano to play alternate seasons for each club. Disagreeing with the verdict, Barça would release the player.

With 'The Blonde Arrow', Real Madrid would enjoy its golden age with five consecutive European Cups. With Kubala, Barça won every title at stake in Spain between 1951 and 1953. The most notable season was the first, that of the Five Cups. Over the course of eleven seasons, the Hungarian, endowed with enormous charisma, was the hero who changed the history of Barcelona in the post-war years. He was accompanied by other outstanding figures such as Ramallets, Basora, and César. His touches of genius, with shots with unprecedented curves, doubled the club's membership, and in 1957 the Camp Nou was inaugurated. In 1955, in the midst of the Cold War, the star's flight from Budapest to the West was used for propaganda purposes by Franco's regime with the film Donkeys seek peaceIt was led by Kubala and Samitier themselves. Five years earlier, the great Barça legend had found that "peace" in Portocristo. He died in Barcelona in 2002, at the age of 74.