- Did you consciously prepare yourself from childhood to become a professional footballer?

Actually, yes, I've been playing football since I was a little kid, even though my parents didn't have much to do with football. However, my grandfather played professional football in Transylvania, in the Romanian league, and he reached a very high level. I probably inherited my love of football from him. I was about five when I started playing football. I live in Óbuda with my parents, so my first club was TVE III. First I played for Vasas-Pasarét, then in 2010 I transferred to the Vasas Academy, where I played football until 2016. I transferred to Vasas because my parents thought I would develop better there, so I had maximum support from my family. They always took me to training after school, so I owe a lot to my parents. It was never a question in my mind that I would become a professional footballer, but fortunately I didn't take my studies lightly. I also have a brother, he is 26 years old, played water polo for a long time, played for the junior national team several times, but he didn't turn professional and focused more on learning.

- Did you study at the Vasas Academy school?

No, I went to a school completely independent of Vasas, I was a student at the Árpád Gymnasium in District III. It was often difficult to combine football with studying, but luckily I always managed to do it one way or another. I'd be lying if I said I loved going to school, but my parents required me to study hard and in hindsight I think that was a very good thing. 

(Source: arpadgimnazium.hu)

- How did you get from Vasas to Újpest?

That's an interesting question. According to the sports experts, the U15/U16 is the age group when it is decided which kids will grow up and become muscular enough to be suitable for professional sport. Unfortunately, when I was 15 or 16, I was physically more backward than my teammates, which meant I was short and didn't have a lot of muscle. At Vasas they didn't really think about me at that time, I felt like they had given up on me.

- Mark my words, but even then you were an central defender with those talents?

No, at that time I was still playing as a midfielder. I started as a defender when I was very young, when we were playing 5x2 across the pitch, and later I was a wing-back, and then I moved to midfield when I was 14, because a centre-back has to be very physical, and as I said, I wasn't. 

- Let's go back to Újpest.

So I was no longer really counted at Vasas, so I took the opportunity and transferred to Újpest. I had to know that I was taking a relatively big risk, because with Vasas I was playing against the best junior teams in the country in the top league, while Újpest's U17 team was only playing in the NB III. I was aware that few players from the NB III junior championship would reach the professional level, but I didn't give up on my dreams and fought even harder. I know now that it was a great decision to change clubs, but like everything in life, I needed a good dose of luck to progress. 

- Can we say that at the age of 16 you have put all your eggs in one basket, because moving from the top league to the NB III junior league is not necessarily a step up?

No, it's not a step up, but I was two steps back at the time, but I was determined that this was my last chance. If I stayed at Vasas, where I was no longer counted at the time, I would certainly have to give up football for good in the short term. So I gave myself one last chance, which I was lucky to take. In the first season at Újpest I almost became the top scorer as a defensive midfielder, but we are talking about NB III, but that season was very good for my confidence. We won the championship that year, and the following year we played in the NB II with the U19 team, where we played a lot more quality games, and I got the captain's armband. 

- That season you also made your debut in the adult league.

That's right, I owe a lot to Viktor Mundi, the head coach of Újpest FC II, who gave me the opportunity to play in the senior league before my 18th birthday. 

- And the following season, still as an U19 player, you became a regular for Újpest's second team.

That's right, that's when I started to feel that my career was back on track. The real step forward came in the 2019/2020 season, when I scored seven goals in 12 games for the second team, which brought me to the attention of the first team's coaching staff and the youth team manager. They offered me a professional contract, which I was happy to accept. Luck played an important role here too, as we had never played against the first team before I was offered a contract, but after I signed my first professional contract, we played a training match against players from the first team who had been given less playing time in the league, maybe a week later. In that meeting, Nebojsa Vignjevic, who was the head coach of Újpest at the time, liked my game and gave me the opportunity to train with the first team. From then on, everything happened very quickly, I was barely out of the squad and was already in the first team in the NB I, and in October I made my debut for the first team in a Hungarian Cup match against Ajka. I only came on as a substitute for the last 15 minutes, but I'll never forget the feeling of playing for Újpest's first team for the first time. Almost a month later, I came on as a starter in the cup match against Vác and scored my first goal in that game. Of course, I also did the winter training camp in Cyprus with the first team and then made my debut in the first NB I league game in the spring of 2020. 

- At that time you were still a midfielder?

That's right, I was playing in midfield, there was no question of me playing in the centre of defence. In fact, I was more of an attacking midfielder than a defensive one. Over the years, I became more solid in defence and then they moved me to centre-back, where I performed so well that I was more and more often counted as a defender.

- You were given the captain's armband at Újpest at a relatively young age, how did this opportunity come about? Did your teammates vote for you or did the head coach appoint you captain?

Last February, we had a home cup game against Kisvárda, in which the then captain Mitrovic did not play and as I was one of the most experienced players in the starting line-up, coach Kruscic gave me the armband before the game. To this day, that match is one of the greatest football experiences I have ever had, not as a spectator but as a player. We came back from 1-0 down and I scored the winning goal in the 93rd minute.

After that, when Mitrovic was replaced or didn't play, I was automatically given the captain's armband, and last summer, after Mitrovic left, I inherited the captaincy. In other words, there was no choice, I inherited the armband, but I felt that my team-mates and the professional staff accepted me as captain to the full. I am immensely proud to have been captain of Újpest, it is something that will accompany me throughout my career and I will always look back on it with pride. 

- The question arises, how difficult was it to make the decision to move from Újpest to Székesfehérvár? Who did you talk it over with before you made the decision?

It's not an exaggeration to say that it was the most difficult decision of my life, I was grinding for a long time until I made this decision. Of course, I consulted a few people I trusted completely, but I managed to keep my own thoughts in check throughout and made the final decision on my own. I had a lot of things to think about, because I had given up a secure position in Újpest, as I was not only the captain of the team, but also one of the main players. By transferring to Vidi, I want to take my career to a new level. I have to fight hard to get into the team here, as there are a lot of good players in my position in the squad, but I feel that this is the fight I need to continue to develop. 

- Who is the player who has had a big influence on the development of your career, who you see as a role model?

Obviously as a kid you look at which player scored the most goals or who showed the best moves. The vast majority of people my age have Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi as their favourite player, but my favourite foreign team since I was a kid is FC Bayern Munich and Joshua Kimmich is the player who has had the biggest influence on me. He is my idol. He was also a centre-back and a wing-back, and eventually he got stuck in midfield - so, like me, he played in several positions. 

- You are already an experienced player in the NB I, you have played against all the teams several times. Who is the striker in the Hungarian top flight who has been the most difficult for you to play against?

At the beginning of my career I was happy to play and I didn't necessarily look at who was the hardest to play against. In the last few years I played against a lot of strikers in the NB I, I played in a lot of Újpest-FTC derbies, but unfortunately we didn't have a lot of success in those. In these derbies FTC always fought us with a two-pronged attack, the Ferencváros forwards always made things difficult for us. But our latest opponent, Puskás Akadémia, also has a striker who I think is one of the best in the NB I, Zahedi, who is also not easy to play against.

- You mentioned earlier that one of your greatest football experiences as a player was the Újpest - Kisvárda cup match. What other football experiences have you had?

The one I experienced as a player and would definitely like to mention is the Hungarian Cup final with Újpest. And something that wasn't my game, but had a big impact on me, was the 2013 CL final, which FC Bayern Munich won 2-1 against Dortmund at Wembley. I was also very happy about that win because I still remembered the failure of the 2012 final, when we lost to Chelsea on penalties in Munich. I experienced those games as a child, aged 11 or 12, and I've been a proud fan of Bayern ever since.

- What do you like to do in your spare time?

For me, it's very important to always be fit, so getting the right amount and quality of rest is a priority. However, I don't completely stop playing football, because I really enjoy watching football matches on TV. I try to watch the matches with a professional eye, especially those players who play in the same position as me. I have a lot of friends I made at school and because I'm the only one of them who is a footballer, when I'm with them I really manage to get away from football. I also started my university studies at ELTE in Economics and Management, but now university has taken a back seat, but I'm definitely thinking about getting a degree while I'm still young, I think I can combine football with my studies. 

- At 22, what are your career goals now?

The most important of my personal goals is to become a national team footballer. That's why I signed for Vidi, because I feel that I have a good chance to develop even more and become an even better player. I am aware that there are very good players in my position in the national team, and that only motivates me to become even better. Besides, it is also important for me to be as successful as possible with Vidi in the future, because it is clear that this team is much better than its current position.

Dusan Vasziljevics, Balázs Farkas, György Sándor, Zoltán Lipták, Tamás Vaskó, Nego Loic, Asmir Suljic - these are the players who transferred from Újpest to Vidi and later celebrated a championship title in red-blue. We wish similar success to Áron Csongvai and Mátyás Katona!