He’s associates with Erling Haaland, indebted to Borussia Mönchengladbach coach Marco Rose and is about to bolster RB Leipzig’s already formidable attacking choices – however what else is there to find out about Hungary worldwide midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai? bundesliga.com fills within the gaps…
1) Soccer within the household
Szoboszlai’s dad, Zsolt, was once an expert footballer, so there’s clearly one thing within the water of their hometown of Szekesfehervar. Dominik began taking part in from a younger age, even foregoing different toys, such was his love of the sport. “I by no means had any Lego are something like that, the one factor I used to be concerned with was a soccer,” he informed 4 4 Two.
His father took it upon himself to be his coach, and in 2007 he even shaped his personal youth crew, Akademie Fönix Gold FC, so as to have the ability to correctly oversee his son’s improvement.
Szoloszlai (r.), taking part in for the Hungary U21s aged simply 17 in 2017, in opposition to their Germany counterpart and new Leipzig teammate Lukas Klostermann (l). – Marc Bohla/ Eibner-Pressefoto/imago/Eibner
“He would keep on coaching me each time the crew’s coaching classes completed,” Szoboszlai mentioned. “I’ve all the time achieved greater than everybody else.”
And it paid off. “He all the time had the ambition to turn into a coach, so we began to work collectively once I was three,” he informed Aim. “Apart from one 12 months, he was my coach till I joined the Purple Bull Academy. He was and nonetheless is a big inspiration and idol for me.
“My father was the important thing consider my improvement. The [huge number of] hours he has spent practising and advising me are not possible to overlook.”
Watch: Leipzig’s techniques underneath Julian Nagelsmann
2) Buddies with Haaland
Szoboszlai is, by his personal admission, “superb associates” with Dortmund striker Haaland because of the 12 months they spent collectively at Salzburg in 2019. The duo, alongside Takumi Minamino, shaped a formidable attacking trident, and given Szoboszlai’s love of constructing and taking objectives – the right-footer scored 12 and offered 18 assists in 40 video games final season – it’s hardly stunning he and the BVB hitman get alongside so nicely.
“He typically informed me what I wanted to do and how you can do it finest, like a pacesetter,” Szoboszlai mentioned of Haaland, three months his senior, in a current interview with kicker.
“I miss him. We’re nonetheless in contact. If I’ve time then I pay him a flying go to, or vice versa. We’ve stayed in touch. I simply hoped that he would have an excellent begin in Dortmund and present what he’s able to. He’s undoubtedly achieved that.”
Agency associates on and off the pitch, Szoloszlai and Erling Haaland loved a profitable, if transient, spell collectively in Salzburg. – KRUGFOTO/AFP through Getty Photos
3) Set-piece specialist
“When it comes to approach, I don’t assume I’m too dangerous,” Szoboszlai informed kicker with heavy understatement when requested about his capacity. Comfy on the left wing or extra centrally as an attacking playemaker, he beforehand described himself as “a really versatile participant who can shoot nicely and thread the ultimate move by way of,” he went on so as to add one other of his stand-out qualities: “Free-kicks and set-pieces typically are amongst my strengths.”
The numbers definitely again him up: 14 of his 44 assists as an expert have come from dead-ball conditions. His former coach within the Hungary U21s, Michael Boris, who labored with a 16-year-old Szoboszlai in that age class, says that has all the time been the case.
“He is aware of precisely what he’s able to,” he informed Aim. “Not in an smug method; even in his youthful years he all the time had a really practical view of his capacity. That was very spectacular.
“Within the 21s we had numerous gamers who had been already taking part in within the top-flight with senior groups. However each time we acquired a free-kick, and regardless of being youthful than everybody else, Dominik simply grabbed the ball as if it was probably the most pure factor on the earth, and he’d take it.”
Szoloszlai put his free-kick prowess to the take a look at in opposition to Bayern Munich within the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League group part. – Huter /Eibner-Pressefoto through www.imago-images.de/imago photos/Eibner Europa
4) Tattoo reminder, grateful to Rose
Whereas Szoboszlai’s ability, imaginative and prescient and ease on the ball are evident for all to see, he additionally possesses one other very important attribute for any younger participant trying to make it to the highest: onerous work and willpower.
That has not all the time been the case, although, and he’s grateful to present Gladbach coach Marco Rose for instilling these qualities in him.
The playmaker joined Salzburg’s youth academy as a 16-year-old in 2017, and after a profitable season on the membership’s feeder crew FC Liefering within the Austrian second division, scoring 16 objectives in 42 appearances, he felt he was able to make the breakthrough into the primary crew. Issues didn’t fairly pan out that method, nonetheless – stymied improvement Szoboszlai admits “was my fault. I’d performed for Liefring within the second division and once I joined the professionals I assumed I may simply proceed doing what I’d been doing,” he mentioned.
“I assumed that the way in which I’d performed till then was undoubtedly ok for the primary division.”
The attacking midfielder believes he owes a debt of gratitude to former Salzburg coach, and present Gladbach boss, Marco Rose, for setting him on the fitting course. – GEPA footage/ Florian Ertl/imago/GEPA footage
Rose, who was in cost at Salzburg from 2017 to 2019 earlier than becoming a member of Gladbach, had different concepts, nonetheless, and made certain the attacker knew he couldn’t coast alongside if he was to make it to the highest: “Marco’s a special form of individual, but when he hadn’t proven me that I wanted change, and alter my angle, then I in all probability wouldn’t be right here now.”
Certainly, so vital was that lesson to Szoboszlai that he had a everlasting reminder tattooed on his left arm: “Expertise is given by God. However with out willpower and sacrifice, it is price nothing”.
5) Turning level in opposition to Napoli
But even then it was a gradual course of to remodel from a uncooked teen into an everyday match-winner at senior degree. Szoboszlai made 16 appearances within the Austrian Bundesliga in 2018/19, 9 of which got here in its place, whereas he performed the complete 90 minutes simply 4 occasions.
There was, nonetheless, a transparent ‘earlier than and after’ second in his profession: 14 March 2019. Rose gave Szoboszlai his UEFA Europa League debut within the final 16 second leg at house to a powerful Napoli aspect coached by Carlo Ancelotti. Szoboszlai seized his second and was the perfect participant on the pitch, selecting up an help in a 3-1 triumph.
“The coach gave me an opportunity in opposition to Napoli and I used to be in a position to present that I used to be able to play in each recreation,” Szoboszlai recalled of arguably the decisive recreation of his time as a professional. He was in Rose’s beginning line-up nearly all of the time after that match, and consolidated his place within the first crew underneath Jesse Marsch, who took the reins in summer season 2019.
Szoloszlai loved a coming-of-age efficiency in opposition to Napoli within the Europa League in March 2019 that attracted the eye of Europe’s largest golf equipment. – through www.imago-images.de/imago photos / AFLOSPORT
“His improvement has been virtually as explosive as that of Haaland,” Marsch mentioned final 12 months, and it was no shock that he completed within the prime 10 of the 2020 Golden Boy Awards that recognise the perfect gamers in Europe underneath the age of 21.
Szoboszlai has been no stranger to big-game performances since taking Napoli aside in 2019. He scored on his Champions League debut in opposition to Genk in September that 12 months, and was within the beginning XI in fixtures in opposition to Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid, even scoring in opposition to the latter in a slim 3-2 loss within the group stage this season.
Not solely that, he has turned on the type on the worldwide stage, too, having made his senior debut for Hungary in March 2019. Szoboszlai struck a spectacular stoppage-time aim with a long-range free-kick in March 2020 to provide his aspect a 1-0 win over Turkey, serving to them end prime of UEFA Nations League Group 3.
He additionally discovered the goal with one other beautiful last-minute aim in opposition to Iceland within the European Championship qualifying play-offs in opposition to Iceland in November 2020 to seal Hungary’s place on the event correct.
Leipzig, then, have fairly the participant on the their arms.
