Today’s object from the collection represents a moment in the history of Haladás of Szombathely, whom I recall first appearing on the radar as Haladás Vasutas, an instantly-attractive name, most probably as a result of the club’s appearance in the 1975-76 Cup-Winners’ Cup, for which tournament they’d qualified as runners-up in the previous season’s Hungarian Cup (Haladás were then & remain trophyless), their first of only two forays into European competition.
Whatever, & however feint Haladás’s stamp on continental football has been, the name has remained in mind & it was good to encounter & subsequently acquire what is a rather lovely vintage pin badge, in the form of the then-current version of the club’s crest from whenever that might have been, featuring as it does their always-enticing green & white colours: again, it’s an object obviously with a certain history that renders it intriguing in addition to its aesthetic effect, intensified by its innate ‘Hungarian-ness’.
