Background
Budai was born in Budapest and played as a midfielder and forward for Ferencvárosi TC, Honvéd and Hungary.
Budai was born in Budapest and played as a midfielder and forward for Ferencvárosi TC, Honvéd and Hungary.
The first of these came at Ferencvárosi TC in where his team mates included Zoltán Czibor and Sándor Kocsis. In January when became a communist state, Ferencváros were deemed unsuitable to become an army or police club because of its right-wing and nationalist traditions. Instead they were taken over by ÉDOSZ, a food workers union and their best players, including Budai, Czibor and Kocsis, were conscripted into the army team, Honvédaughter
He subsequently played 39 times for and scored 10 goals.
As one of the legendary Mighty Magyars, he helped become in and in. He also played in the side that defeated England 6-3 at Wembley Stadium.
However, despite an excellent performance in the latter game, he was dropped for the final to make room for Ferenc Puskáson He was also included in the squad for the 1958 but did not play.
, 1954, 1955.
During the 1950s he was a member of the legendary Hungarian national team known as the Mighty Magyars. Other members of the team included Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor, Sándor Kocsis, József Bozsik and Nándor Hidegkuti.