World Soccer - UK (2020-04)

fused with the popular nearby Zsory

Thermal Baths in 2012.”

It was around this time that the

town’s mayor Zoltan Fekete, who is

from the same ruling party as the

country’s relentless stadium-building

prime minister Viktor Orban, began to

invest in a high-level infrastructure.

“The right conditions are vital,”

continues Hagyacki. “We installed a

heated pitch and the new stadium was

completed in 2016.

“In addition, a modern training centre

will be built, with three pitches, a smaller

training area and a hotel, where we

can welcome foreign teams for training

camps. We also have a supply centre for

athletes with artificial turf and

another grass pitch.”

Mezokovesd’s sponsor-free Town

Stadium has the capacity to hold one

third of the town’s entire 16,000

population, but it is in the dugout

where the real transformation lies.

A journeyman defender, Attila Kuttor

played for 12 clubs before taking up

coaching duties at Szombathely Haladas.

Although “Hali” are now going through

a tough time and were relegated to the

second tier last season, two stalwart

Hungarian internationals, Bela Illes and

tracksuit-bottomed goalkeeper Gabor

Kiraly, could not have provided Kuttor

with a better club at which to learn

his trade.

Of his move to Mezokovesd, Kuttor

says: “When I got here in 2017 the team

was fighting to avoid relegation so the

only goal was to stay up. Of course, we

were constantly working to get the team

in line with my ideas and we started

doing that when I arrived. I think it was

successful because we were still in the

top flight NBI at the end of the year.”

With Kuttor came a journeyman who

was little-known outside a few lower-

league provincial clubs. Yet Tamas Cseri

eyewitness HUNGARY

in Europe”, explaining: “We want to

constantly improve and advance as

far as the team is concerned.

“We only focus on the next task, the

match ahead.”

General manager Hagyacki, however,

takes a slightly different view, revealing:

“I don’t want to look back, I really hope

we can keep this position.

“We are secretly talking about the

possibility of the Europa League...”

has, at the age of 32, been a revelation

this season.

“He is the captain of the team and an

exemplary footballer who has been the

decisive link in the game as we planned

it,” says Kuttor. “He has a lot of positive

qualities that I couldn’t begin to list, but

the point is he plays a crucial role in the

team and in this kind of football.”

It was Cseri’s industrious passing game

that put Ferencvaros to the sword this

term, scoring one goal and being involved

in just about everything else. In front of

a sell-out crowd at the Town Stadium,

he showed what you can do with some

clever coaching backed up by the right

infrastructure.

Kuttor says he

is “absolutely not

dealing with the

possibility of playing

In charge...coach Attila Kuttor

“We are absolutely not dealing with

the possibility of playing in Europe”

Attila Kuttor

Name game...

the Town stadium

Exemplary...Tamas

Cseri (left)

“We are secretly talking about the

possibility of the Europa League”

Jozsef Hagyacki