OTP League: Away game with Puskas Academy on Saturday

It's back to league action at the weekend with an away game against the Puskas Academy.

Match 8 of the OTP League season takes place on Saturday when MOL Vidi FC play their sixth game of the 2018-19 season. The game against bottom placed Puskas Academy FC will kick off at 17:00pm on Saturday.

Puskas finished last season in 6th place and also made the Hungarian Cup final. The summer saw Miklos Benczes return as manager, but his side have gone on to collect 2 points from the opening 7 games to sit bottom of the OTP league table. Their two points were against DVTK and at home to Kisvarda. They have also lost to DVSC, MTK, Haladas, Paks and Mezokovesd. Their next four opponents all finished in a top 4 place in season 2017-18.

PAFC saw former players Polonkai and Vaczak retire, while they broke up the contract with Ivor Horvat. Several players headed out on loan: Henty Ezekiel went to Osijek, David Prosser to Sepsiszentgyör, Mark Madarasz to ZTE, Debrecen  borrowed Mark Szecsi, while Antonio Perosevic switched to UAE. Players to leave the club permanently were Patrick Mevoungou to Mezokovesd, Denis Klinart to Maribor and former defender Zsolt Tar went to ETO. Stipe Bacelic-Grgic headed to Slaven Belupo. The end of the transfer window saw a further two say goodbye to Felcsut: Gabor Molnar moved to Mezokovesd and David Markvart to Diosgyör.

The many departures naturally meant that there would be arrivals. Szilard Bokros moved up to the first team, while 17 year old Tamas Kiss joined from Haladas. Bachana Arabuli came from Balmazujvaros. Roland Szolnoki, who had won three league titles with Vidi, also joined the Felcsut club. The start of September saw further moves: Bryan de Jesus (El Nacional, Columbia), Jan Vlasko (Spartak Trnava), Benedik Mioc (NK Osijek), Jozef Urblik (Jihlava), while Jozsef Varga also linked up after mutually ending his contract with Vidi. 

The transfermarkt.de website values their squad at 8,85 million euros, which is the third highest in Hungary after Vidi and Fradi. Highest value player is Mioc (750k€), and Knezevic (700 k€), while Jozsef Varga is valued at 600,000€. Former Vidi players in their current squad include Branislav Danilovic, Jozsef Varga, Roland Szolnoki and Zsolt Nagy. 

Author: David Rechnitzer

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