We had a long interview with the scorer of our winning goal against FTC about his career and his goals.
You were born in Székesfehérvár, but you learned the basics of football in Sárbogárd as a child. How did your journey lead you from Sárbogárd to Bergamo?
My father played football, he was a goalkeeper, and we went to his matches when I was very young, so that's probably where I was "infected" with the love of football. I was about five when I started going to training sessions in Sárbogárd. Once, my primary school team and I played in the student Olympics in Székesfehérvár and I was noticed by the Phoenix coaches. Soon afterwards, they contacted my parents, who supported me in everything even then, and that's how I ended up in Székesfehérvár, at Főnix, where I got all the basics I needed for football later on. I feel I was in the best possible place as a kid, I really owe a lot to Főnix. However, at that time, the cooperation between the club and MTK was not as close as it later became, so I had to change, as the youth teams of the Főnix were not in the top league. We won a football tournament with the Vörösmarty Mihály Primary School in Győr and afterwards I was approached from Győr to continue my sporting career and studies at the Fehér Miklós Football Academy. Once again, an opportunity came my way that was a step forward for me, so I took it. I had a great time in Győr, where I managed to improve. In 2015, another big opportunity came my way and I was offered a move in Italy, with Atalanta.
You were barely 15 when you arrived in Italy. How did you manage to cope with being in a new country so young and all alone?
As I said, my parents always supported me in everything, it was very important for me to know that I could always count on them. When I first came to Atalanta, Ákos Kecskés and Dávid Forgács were still there, so there were Hungarians close to me in the very beginning who helped me to integrate. When I found out that I was going to Italy, I started learning Italian at home and continued learning Italian in English outside. By the way, it was a great help for me that one of my team-mates, with whom I became friends, didn't speak any English at all, so I was even more forced to learn Italian as quickly as possible. I still keep in touch with many of my teammates from that time to this day. We won the U17 championship with Atalanta, we had a great team and it was a great experience that season. I was in the same team as players like Alessandro Bastoni, who is now playing for Inter, and Andrea Colpani, who plays for Monza..
How did you get from Atalanta to Genoa? It's an interesting story, because I ended up in Genoa with a detour to England. In January, I was supposed to go to Nottingham, I went there, but we ran out of time with the transfer window, so I only trained with the English team for six months. The agreement was to sign me in the summer, but there was a change of ownership that summer and the deal didn't go through. Then Genoa approached me and because I loved playing football in Italy, I signed for them. It was my first season not playing for the youth team, but for Genoa's reserve team in the Primavera, so it was adult football. I also loved playing football there and the city was wonderful, but unfortunately I had a number of injuries and I didn't manage to get the best out of it. Were you surprised when Vidi approached you in 2019? It wasn't completely unexpected, because Zoltán Kovács had wanted to bring me home for a long time, but the time finally came in 2019. I was happy to transfer to Vidi, as the team from Fehérvár has always been close to my heart. We didn't start well this season, Vidi was in the bottom half of the table for a long time and we were knocked out from the cup by ESMTK from NB III. However, it was as if you were replaced last season, you won some very nice and important victories. What happened to the team? I feel we are becoming a real team. We're not just eleven players in the same shirt on the pitch, we're trying to fight as a team for each other and for the fans. Obviously, we can't win every game and we're going to lose some matches, but we're going into every game with a winning mentality. We were frustrated for a long time that results were not coming, but we managed to overcome that. The coaching staff have found a line-up that can get us results and after two or three games you get a boost in confidence. I'm happy that the team is in a good period and I'm also happy that I can contribute to the team's success with goals and assists. I have important goals, but I always take it one step at a time. The most important thing now is to stay healthy and help Vidi in as many matches as possible. Of course, I have even bigger plans in football, but to achieve them I know that I still have a lot of work to do and a lot to prove. I believe that a striker's indicators look good when he has scored double-digit goals at the end of the season, so that's my goal for this season.
Author: David Rechnitzer
Magyar