Hungary head to Euro 2024 with the modern day David Beckham and a lad from Bury (2024)

Euro 2024 Preview - Hungary: Famous for their football generations of the past, Hungary head to a third successive European Championships with some eye-catching English-based stars

Hungary head to Euro 2024 with the modern day David Beckham and a lad from Bury (1)

We all had to find something to do during lockdown, and for Callum Styles it was researching his family tree.

"To be honest I only found out my grandmother was Hungarian about two years ago," Styles told a BBC podcast in 2022. "I knew they were from a country but I didn't know where it was and then it was around lockdown time and I just wanted to know more.

"Then I found out it was Hungary off my mum and then everything's just fallen into place." It certainly has.

Styles, then battling against relegation from the Championship with Barnsley, was first called into the Hungary squad in March 2022 and he's been a fixture ever since, including playing when the Hungarians remarkably thrashed a shattered England 4-0 at Molineux two years ago.

With his club career having taken in loans at Millwall and Sunderland since Barnsley's relegation, the adaptable Bury-born 24-year-old has become a dependable Championship player, with his versatility seen as key for Hungary manager Marco Rossi's squad.

Rossi, who had a nomadic managerial career in his native Italy before moving to Hungarian football in 2012 and taking over the national team in 2018, doesn't exactly have a squad full of star names to choose from, and this is a Hungarian selection which won't trouble the heights set by the great Ferenc Puskas et al in the past.

Hungary squeezed through to the last-16 at Euro 2016, their first Euros since reaching the semis in 1972, before a group stage exit in 2020 when their own relaxed Covid restrictions meant that they played their matches at a sold out Puskas Arena in Budapest.

While Styles' hard work is welcome, the two most exciting additions to the squad since then are the lively Bournemouth left-back/left winger Milos Kerkez, who is just 20 and has some of the Premier League's biggest fish circling around him, and of course the nation's new captain, Liverpool's 23-year-old Dominik Szoboszlai.

"A modern day David Beckham" was how Szoboszlai's former Red Bull Salzburg manager Jesse Marsch described him upon his arrival at Liverpool last summer, but Reds fans quickly began to see more than a hint of Steven Gerrard in their new signing, and it wasn't just because he was wearing the No.8 shirt.

Strong, dynamic and and often playing in slightly deeper, more central positions than many had expected him to, Szoboszlai was a revelation in the opening few months of what would come to be Jurgen Klopp's final season, and he stood out in a transitional Liverpool side as someone who craved responsibility, and the ball.

Ultimately his campaign would go on to represent Liverpool's as a whole, falling away in the final few months with a series of fitful displays, largely because he was one of many to have been struck down by the club's injury curse, missing the Carabao Cup final.

Growing into the armband for his country, for whom he has an impressive record of 12 goals in 41 caps at the time of writing, Szoboszlai powered Hungary to Germany with a blistering brace against Montenegro last November, after which he celebrated with a shot of traditional Palinka, just when his Liverpool form was at its peak.

He also has a winning goal against England on his CV from those crammed in Nations League matches in the summer 2022, and there will be a huge amount placed on his broad shoulders in Germany, where you suspect Hungary will be battling with Switzerland and Scotland for a spot behind the hosts.

The final group match with Scotland will be key, and Hungary will need their Bury-born utility man, their Bournemouth-based youngster and their Liverpool star captain on form if they are to have a chance.

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Hungary head to Euro 2024 with the modern day David Beckham and a lad from Bury (2)

The Three Lions are among the favourites to win this summer's Euro 2024 tournament and you can get your hands on the brand new Nike home and away kits before the first whistle.

Hungary head to Euro 2024 with the modern day David Beckham and a lad from Bury (2024)
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