Dominik Szoboszlai a Huge Motivator for the Next Generation of Athletes

Botond Balogh, Kevin Csoboth, Nego Loic, Mihály Kata, Pál Dárdai, Dominik Szoboszlai (L-R)

According to the State Secretary for Sport, Ádám Schmidt, the training of sports professionals needs to be modernized.  He also spoke about Dominik Szoboszlai and the unique sporting opportunities for Hungarian youth on Monday’s National Sport Radio program.

At the beginning of the one-hour interview, Schmidt highlighted the importance of the National Institute for Sports Development and Methodology (NSMI) and the meeting of the general secretaries held in February, which was attended by almost 200 people.

It’s very difficult to summarize briefly what the mission is, but I could say that it is to put the sport agenda first,”

he said about the NSMI. “After the comments made by the federations following the Olympics, we felt that we needed a newly created body with a special focus to bring the sports sector even more to the fore,” said Adam Schmidt. This board will continue to work with the National Institute for Sports Health and all higher education institutions that provide training for sports professionals.

“In mid-September, we contacted the eight higher education institutions that provide sports training, because we want to involve the federations too. We have sports where there is no serious curriculum in any of the higher education institutions, but some of them teach from decades-old curricula. If we cannot renew these and react to the challenges of today, we will unfortunately train professionals who will not be ready for the daily challenges when they leave the classroom,” said Schmidt, who stressed that

since 2010, there has been a major development in Hungarian sport that the quality of the required education has not been able to keep up with.

He explained that this does not help the progress of Hungarian sport in the field of developing the next generation of sportsmen, nor does it help young people to become professional athletes. He called attention to the need to develop their cognitive skills, an area in which Hungary is lagging far behind.

“We all know that only one percent of young people who start playing sport make it to the world elite, so this is not the aim, but to reach the new generation, to have well-prepared coaches and to offer them very good conditions to play sport in. It goes beyond teaching a young man or woman to swim, run, pentathlon, or the basics of any sport. They are joining a real community, not a virtual one, and they are learning a lot of character-building values that will help them in whatever life throws at them,” Schmidt declared.

He also pointed out how lucky today’s young people are to see a great Hungarian footballer and role model in Dominik Szoboszlai, who plays for Liverpool.

I hope that Dominik Szoboszlai’s example will inspire young people that it is possible to come all the way from Hungary,”

Schmidt stated. He hoped that inspired by Szoboszlai’s success, the main goal of the training will be that after a year or two of domestic league appearances, young athletes can continue their training at clubs abroad.

Via MTI; Featured picture: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt