New Kicks on the Block: Two New Players Join the National Football Team

MTI-Hungary Today 2025.03.11.

Marco Rossi, manager of the Hungarian football team

Two young talents were invited to join the Hungarian National Football Team preparing for the Nations League qualifier against Türkiye. Marco Rossi revealed that the new faces are Bence Dárdai, the German team VfL Wolfsburg‘s midfielder, and Alex Tóth, another midfielder playing in Ferencváros, wrote HVG.

Head coach Marco Rossi, is counting on 26 players for the Nations League qualifiers against the Turks next Thursday and Sunday. “Alex plays regularly for Ferencváros and performs well in midfield, while Bence mostly comes on as a substitute but regularly gets opportunities to play in the Bundesliga, and is part of a pretty strong team. I think this was the right time to send them an invitation,” said the coach.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bence Dardai (@bencedardai)

Fact

19-year-old Bence Dárdai already has a lot of potential. At his current club, VfL Wolfsburg, he is mostly used as a defensive midfielder. He is also grateful for the fact that he is a dual citizen, Hungarian and German. He had the chance to decide which national team he wanted to represent among adults and in the end he voted for Hungary. Footballers did not always have this choice, as a previous rule stated that a player who had already played for a given nation in the youth national team could not change countries later, but this has now been abolished, wrote HVG.

The coach explained at the press conference that

the Hungarian team is preparing with such a large squad because there are “unsettled” players about whom he has not yet been able to decide.

He called up four goal-keepers this time because Dénes Dibusz is only just returning from his injury, so he wants to see what Krisztián Hegyi and Péter Szappanos are capable of.

He invited Attila Szalai, who is returning after a long time, because the defender is finally getting more opportunities in his club team. However, he added that Ádám Nagy is not with the national team right now due to the lack of matches. When asked how he would solve the problem of having both Zsolt Nagy and Milos Kerkez on the field at the same time, he said that he had tried tactical changes before, but as the result shows, it did not end well, so he does not think that now is the time for it.

Rossi expects a very competitive match in the first leg in Istanbul, but he is confident that the national team’s historic, thousandth appearance will be an extra motivation for his students. He added that regeneration will play a huge role between the two matches, which is why he was pleased, for example, that team captain Dominik Szoboszlai only got 45 minutes at the weekend in Premier League leaders Liverpool.

About the Turkish team he said that although they played in League B of the Nations League last year, most of their players play in the top European leagues, and those who do not, play in the top teams of the also strong Turkish league. He emphasized that

their team’s market value is three times ours, so we have a very serious task ahead of us, and we should definitely expect a hellish atmosphere in the Istanbul match. We need to prepare ourselves mentally for that.”

The winner of the Hungarian-Turkish duel can play in the top division of the Nations League next season, while the loser will play in Division B, the second division.

Marco Rossi: "Everybody in Europe respects the Hungarian national team now"

In a recent interview, the manager of the national football team praised not only the players but the fans as well.Continue reading

Via MTI, HVG; Featured picture: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt