Budapest – District XI (Gyula Grosics Sculpture)

Located in District XI of Budapest, I’m not sure that I’ve seen a sculpture quite like this before and it commemorates the life of Gyula Grosics (1926-2014) who was the goalkeeper of the Hungarian national team in the 1950s. This team is apparently arguably one of the best to have ever played and Grosics was an integral part of that squad. He had the nickname of the ‘Black Panther’ as he wore black clothing when playing and he received 86 caps for the national team. The sculpture was installed here in 2018 and was designed by Kligl Sándor (1947-) who is an award winning Hungarian sculptor.

Here’s the information panel by the sculpture, which translated reads:

“PLAYERS SHOULD NOT EVEN ACCIDENTALLY BELIEVE
THAT THEY ARE HONOURING THE AUDIENCE
BUT RATHER THE OTHER WAY AROUND
THE PLAYER SHOULD FEEL HONOURED
THAT THEY CAN REPRESENT THE COLOURS OF A NATION
IN THE WIDE WORLD…” GYULA GROSICS

GYULA GROSICS
“BLACK PANTHER”
(1926 – 2014)

LEGENDARY GOALKEEPER OF THE GOLDEN TEAM
SPORTSMAN OF THE NATION, OLYMPIC CHAMPION
HONORARY CITIZEN OF OUR DISTRICT
ERECTED IN HIS MEMORY BY
THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF ÚJBUDA
2018

ARTIST: SÁNDOR KLIGL”