Remembering when Ranger’s Jim Baxter took Real Madrid’s Ferenc Puskás to a party in Drumchapel

Ferenc Puskás, widely regarded as one of the best footballers of all time, once visited a party in Drumchapel following a match in Ibrox in 1963 while the Hungarian striker played for Real Madrid.

Puskás is best known for his time spent at Real Madrid and for the appearances he made for his country of Hungary on a national level. His goals and performances were regarded as second-to-none throughout the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. In his career, Ference bagged 84 goals in 85 international appearances, and 514 goals in 529 matches in the Hungarian and Spanish leagues.

Puskas, who died in 2006 at the age of 79 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, visited Glasgow more than once as well. Prior to his 1963 match at Ibrox, Ferenc played a legendary match at Hampden; Real Madrid vs Eintracht Frankfurt, ending in a 7-3 win for the Spanish side.

More than 120,000 spectators relished the action, as Puskas finished the match with four goals - the only time such a goal-count was seen at a European Cup Final - with Di Stefano also netting a hat-trick (the Germans had shocked Real Madrid into action by scoring first).

A plaque commemorating what is regarded as one of the greatest football matches of the 20th century – if not the greatest – still sits at the Scottish National Football Museum at Hampden.

In attendence in the stands was fellow footballing legend Sir Alex Ferguson, only 19 at the time, he recalls the match in a foreword in a book on Puskas, titled Puskas: Madrid, Magyars and the Amazing Adventures of the World’s Greatest Goalscorer.

“I was a player at Queen’s Park and was able to get a ticket to witness the greatest final of all time,” writes Sir Alex Ferguson, in the foreword to the book, published by BackPage Press and translated from Hungarian into English for the first time.

“I was fortunate to have seen him play. He was without question one of the greatest players of all time.”

After another European Cup tie, against Rangers, Puskas famously ended up at a house party in Drumchapel. His chaperone? One Jim Baxter, who later recalled, “I’ve always thought there should be a plaque in Drumchapel which should state: ‘The great footballer Puskas scored here’.”

In a biopic documentary released in 2021 on BBC Alba, simply called ‘Jim Baxter’, the Rangers legend remembered taking the Real Madrid striker to a party in Easterhouse rather than Drumchapel, whether he’s misremembering or if the long-told tale about the Drumchapel gaff was misattributed is unclear.

Spekaing in the documentary, Baxter said about Puskas:“Everybody wanted to be in his company because he was good company to be in, and the stories... aw there’s thousands of them. As we’ve all said there’s ones that you can’t tell and ones you can.

“We took Puskas up to Easterhouse one time to a party, and all Puskas could say was ‘Jimmy Baxter’ and ‘Whisky’.”