This is an interview done in 2011with my friend János for an hungarian website of football. I speak about my projects on the Golden Team.
- Where is your unusual affection for Central and Eastern European football coming from? (You can tell a few experiences about your trips to Moscow, Poland, etc.)
When i was a kid i was already attracted by Eastern
Europe, mostly by Russia. For example, i read Michel Strogoff by Jules Vernes,
the atmosphere fascinated me : this huge land, its several and different
people, so far from me...
Several years later, i became an Erasmus student for
one year in Finland in 1997. It permitted me to discover Russia in real
(Helsinki and Petersburg are closed together)...It was a shock ! This first
path in ex-communist area was very interesting, like discovering a new world...
At that time, i was attracted by Hungary too. In
Finland, i learnt a lot about Hungarians because of this finno-ugric
brotherhood, i learnt about this Ural people speaking languages close to
finnish and magyar...
Hungarians with their strange laguage, their unknown
origins excited my curiosity...
After, I travelled a lot in Central and Eastern Europe
(Hungary, Poland,...) and in ex-USSR (in Russia, Ukrain, Belarus, Baltic
countries...).
When i started to work, i decided to keep this
special link with Eastern Europe : i taught french language for an half year
in Moscow University and now, i organise exchanges between my pupils (i am
teacher of history) and pupils from Eastern Europe. For three years, i worked
with a school from Poland and now, i have an exhange with a school from
Debrecen !
During my trips, i have always tried to see football
game. For example, i have seen Champion’s League game in Moscow (Spartak vs
Real) or international match, like Finland vs Hungary in world cup qualifying
1998 (1-1 and Hungary advanced to play-off against Yugoslavia...). That’s why I
am very happy to see European Championship in Poland and Ukrain !
2. How come a French person is so interested in the story of Puskás and the Aranycsapat? What made you interested in it? (movies, books, etc.)
I am a fan of sports. So it was natural for me to mix
sports and Eastern Europe, two of my hobbies ! Naturally i discovered
the two legendary stories about hungarian sport : Aranycsapat and the famous
water-polo game in Melboune Olympic Game.
These two stories are linked strongly to History :
Cold War, uprising of Budapest...That was the first reason of my interest.
And Aranycspat started to fascinated me. I saw a TV
report about it and i fell in love with this story. Not only because about its
historical level...this story is unbeliveable ! The perfect script.
It is like a Greek tragedy : a drama with heroes
crushed by fate, and gread battles : the game in Wembley, the revenge in
Nepstadion, the violent quarter-final against Brazil, the victory on Yahsin and
the Soviets in Moscow and of course, the final versus Germany...
I have seen two reports and one movie (Das Wunder
von Bern) about Aranycsapat and i read many books. The thing is : more you
know about this story, less you know it ! I read so many explanations for the
defeat !
3. What is your Puskas-story about?
One of my other hobby is to write imaginar stories. I
write science-fiction, fantastic and fantasy. I have published several stories
in magazines or in anthologies, in France or abroad. You can have a look on my
web site : http://meddyligner.blogspot.com/
For my Aranycsapat-story, my idea was to mix sport and
fantastic. It is rare in literature, mostly in Europe. In America, there are
some examples like Rollerball (a short story describing a futuristic
violent sport. Two films were made from it.) or W.P. Kinsella and Stephen King
who wrote stories of baseball with supernatural elements. Personnally, i worked
on another project about futuristic Tour de France.
But i wanted to explore football as well. So i decided
to look for a good start for my story. And i have choosen the Aranycsapat story
!
If i resume, my Aranycsapat mix real elements
(Aranycsapat myth, Cold War background...) and supernatural ones, like time
travelling.
4. How are you planning to recreate the story of the Aranycsapat? Plot, characters, message?
Through rememberings of an old man and...time travelling
!
I insist on great games (Wembley, Bern...) and other
elements around games...But i don’t want to say too much...i want to let
surprises for future readers...
5. Many elements of the Aranycsapat-myth are unknown
or disputed. Do you want to focus on reality or fiction?
The both are exciting and make this story so
interesting. So i want to use reality AND fiction. For example, the
explanations of the defeat are very interesting : are they true ? is it
fanstasm ? are they excuses ? We do not know really. I speak about it.
6. Is it possible to turn the story into comics without distorting the legend of these players?
Yes, i think illustrations would give a great
dimension to this story. The vintage style from 1950’s (old stadiums, leather balls,
big shorts...) is very beautiful, esthetic and can be very well exploited by a
good illustrator...
7. Szepesi, the commentator of 6:3, is 90 this year. Does he play any role in your story?
I have mentioned him...It can be a great gift for him to
be in a comics !!
I mention the German radio reporter too, Herbert
Zimmermann. His words after victory were very famous for Germans...
8. When we met in Poitiers, you showed us some earlier
stories, for example the futuristic Tour de France. In your opinion, what is
the future of football be like?
Maybe full of technoloy with cyborg-players or
genetically-modified-players, made in laboritories and owned by firms.
Because of bets, referees will have more and more
pressure on their shoulders, so maybe there will be more than one referee on
the pitch, helped by video...but corruption will too strong...that’s why i
believed in "ref-robot", totally neutral, thanks to technologies...
We can imagine games between firm teams (like in
cycling) : Coca-Cola vs Gazprom, Microsoft vs Exxon... ant the pitch will be
full of advertisments.
9. Have you published any pieces of the story so far
(Galactica, French magazines, websites)?
Not yet. Because i want to collaborate with an
illustrator. An hungarian illustrator would be perfect !! He can help me,
giving his personnal vision of the Aranycsapat myth. It would be great to have
a franco-hugarian collaboration for this project !! So if one of your
reader is interested, i am open to propositions ! Write to this website, they
will transmit me.
10. Do you have a publisher or a contact person in
Hungary? How would you like to get the story to the readers: through comics,
magazines or through your own book? Are publishers interested in it at all?
I have no contact with publisher in Hungary, but it
would be very nice ! I have met french comics publishers and when i presented
them the project, they said that the subject is very interesting...but i need
illustrations to show them...
It can be published in magazine like a serial or
in a book.
11. Why do you think Hungarians will be
interested in your version of the story?
Of course, i write my stories in french, so my story
target french readers. But if Hungarians read it, i think it can be interested
for them to see a foreign interpretation of one of their national myth:
Aranycsapat.
It is always good to have another vision on your own
history.
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