Hungarian soccer great Ferenc Puskas, the best player of his generation and talismanic member of the nation's "Golden Team" of the 1950s, died in hospital today aged 79 after a long illness.

Puskas, who was known as "Little Brother" in Hungary, "The Galloping Major" in England and the "Booming Cannon" by Real Madrid fans, died at 7am, his biographer Gyorgy Szollosi said.
   
"The exact cause of death was cardiovascular and respiratory failure triggered by pneumonia," Szollosi said.
   
His funeral will be held on December 9th, the international committee organising the ceremony said in a statement.
   
In the evening friends, former nationals and Hungarian citizens remembered Puskas with candles and flowers at a photo of him outside the building of the Football Association. The government declared December 9th a day of national mourning.
   
Puskas's family appealed in a statement for dignified mourning and parliament held a one-minute silence today.
   
"The best-known Hungarian of the 20th century is gone," Hungary's Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said in a statement.
   
FIFA president Sepp Blatter hailed Puskas as the greatest Hungarian player of the past 50 years. In a letter of condolence to the Hungarian Football Federation Blatter said the forward was "one of the greatest players that I have seen in my life".
   
Puskas, whose international scoring record of 83 goals in 84 games stood until 2003, won Olympic gold with Hungary in 1952, league titles with his Hungarian club Honved and with Real Madrid, with whom he also won three European Cups.
   
"This is a real tragedy for Hungary and specifically for us, his friends. I am on the verge of tears... the biggest sportsman of the country is no longer," said former international team mate Jeno Buzanszky.
   
Puskas was the inspiration behind the "Magical Magyars", the Hungarian national side that sensationally beat England 6-3 in 1953, the first foreign side to win at Wembley.
   
"My memories are that I have never seen the likes of ... as a team or an individual," former England striker Tom Finney, who was injured for that game, told BBC Radio.
   
As the last millennium drew to a close, Puskas was voted the 20th century's fourth best player by the International Federation for Football History and Statistics.

Born in April 1927, Puskas began his career in the domestic league aged 15 and won his first international cap three years later, scoring on his debut against neighbours Austria.
   
He was a key member of Hungary's 1950s team that lost just one match - the 1954 World Cup final - in six years.
   
That side was devastated by Hungary's anti-communist uprising in 1956, after which Puskas went into exile.
   
In 1958, he resurrected his career at Real Madrid where he formed a lethal strike partnership with Argentine-born Alfredo Di Stefano, winning six domestic titles and conquering Europe.
   
Puskas scored four and Di Stefano three in Real's mesmerising 7-3 European Cup win over Eintracht Frankfurt in Glasgow in 1960 - a match that has passed into soccer folklore.
   
Despite all the goals and fame, a former next-door neighbour from Madrid remembers Puskas as a down-to-earth man.
   
"Although he was a famous footballer he seemed very normal compared to today's modern stars," said Jacobo Olalla Maranon.
   
"He lived in a modest flat below ours and was very generous. He often brought home footballs from training for the kids in the block to play with."
   
Puskas retired in 1967, going on to coach clubs in several countries, leading Greek side Panathinaikos to the European Cup final in 1971.
   
Puskas, who was admitted to hospital in late 2000 with arteriosclerosis and was later diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, leaves a wife Erzsebet.
   
For Hungarians, whose national team have not qualified for a major championship since 1986, Puskas and the 1950s side are a proud, if distant, memory.
   
"I belong to the generation who could still see him play. He was Hungarian football, with a few others on the golden team," said Attila Farkas, aged 65.