Whenever your team gains entry to a major football tournament for the first time in 44 years, you should be thrilled. Hungary has finally done so, and there are three versions as to how that happened.
Optimistic
years of heavy government investment spearheaded by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has resulted in building dozens of modern stadiums. The appointment of Hungary’s richest man Sándor Csányi has finally laid a solid background in which coaches with Bundesliga pedigree – Hertha BSC’s former player and current coach Pál Dárdai and ex Dortmund player and current national team manager Bernd Storck – have been able to guide the team to France.
Pessimistic
“Merci Michel!” – a nod of thanks to UEFA President Michel Platini who expanded the European championship to 24 teams and allowed Hungary to qualify in third place from a group that featured giants such as Northern Ireland, Finland, the Faroe Islands, a chaotic Romanian team and a Greek squad that imploded under Claudio Ranieri. This story would arguably feature several jokes at the expense of the Prime Minister and his lackeys in the party who built a stadium “Santiago Orbáneu” at the doorstep of his Felcsút estate.
Realistic
Yes, expanding the tourney helped, but the playoff win against Norway over two legs was impressive, given the differences in quality between the squads.
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Route to the final
Real Madrid Castilla starlet Martin Odegaard was made to look like a 17-year-old playing against grown men by Hungarian players struggling to get into bottom table Bundesliga squads, and by 30 something career journeymen plying their trades in China or in Budapest.
The move of the year surely belonged to Storck, the former youth national team coach who plucked László Kleinheisler out of the reserve team of Videoton to see the 21-year-old score in Oslo and play exceptionally well. It was a brave decision that paid dividends, and one that a Hungarian coach would not have had the courage to make in years gone by.
Do Hungary stand a chance?
Hungary are a 400/1 shot to win the it all, and have been drawn into Group F with the likes of Portugal, Austria and qualifying group winners Iceland.
Hungary are basically a non-factor in terms of going deep into the tournament. The odds of progressing past the group stages are mostly mathematical: in such a small sample size of games, “anything is possible” to quote noted contemporary philosopher Kevin Garnett, and one or two lucky goals could earn third place and a potential entry to the round of 16.
Squad mix
“Hope springs eternal” as the English say and it’s easy to have the rose-tinted glasses view before the tournament, but one quick look at the Hungarian squad is a sobering dose of reality.
Gábor Király is a legendary goalkeeper in Hungary, but he is 40 and has aged far less gracefully than someone like Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon.
The defence is a strange mix of an over the hill central defender in Roland Juhász, who has spent close to a decade at Anderlecht, and a big redemption story – Richard Guzmics, who was the fall guy in the 8-1 loss to the Netherlands in 2014, is now a standout performer.
Attila Fiola is the right-back, a diligent Hungarian league player who likes to bomb forward, while Tamas Kádár is the talented left-back, who plies his trade in Poland. Ádám Lang, a 23-year-old CB from Videoton might also be in the mix.
The two holding midfielders in the favoured 4-2-3-1 are going in opposite directions.
Zoltan Gera is now 37 and a fraction of the technical winger that used to be able to cut it in the Premier League with West Bromwich Albion, while Adam Nagy is the most promising prospect at 20 and has been tipped by a number of analysts to break out in France 16.
Balasz Dzsudzsák used to have that title, and while he can still occasionally produce a moment of magic, at 29, the former PSV Eindhoven man will probably go down in the long history of great Hungarian what-could-have-beens.
Krisztián Németh, a former Liverpool player is not far behind, especially after choosing to go to Qatar at age 26 after a wonderful MLS season with Kansas City. The main playmaker, Kleinheisler has not been able to break into relegation escapees Werder Bremen.
As for forwards, Nikolics Nemanja won the top scorers award in Poland comfortably, but is yet to play well for the national team. Ádám Szalai’s most memorable moment was his late-night heroics after beating Norway, where he famously ordered a shot of brandy for everyone at a popular Budapest bar.
Tamás Priskin scored the goal of his life against Norway, but is 30 and playing in the Slovakian league after not being deemed good enough for the Championship. Last but not least, there is Dániel Böde, aka the Messi of Madocsa who is an old fashioned, 190cm tall centre forward.
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