ADAM BOGDAN IS Liverpool’s other Hungarian.
Dominik Szoboszlai is now Anfield’s most famous.
The 23-year-old midfielder captains his country as they start their Euro 2024 campaign against Switzerland in Cologne today [2pm].
But first, can you remember Adam Bogdan?
He’s 36 now, his roaring red hair and face peppered with freckles making him stand out wherever he goes – even in a media room at Aviva Stadium surrounded by Irish peers before the recent friendly in Dublin.
Bogdan towers over everyone at 6ft 4in, including his colleagues at M4 Sport where he now works as a pundit.
He was a peripheral figure as back-up goalkeeper for Liverpool for four years from 2015. There were loan spells interspersed and it was at Hibernian during the 2018/19 season that he played with Daryl Horgan, who Bogdan is thrilled to hear is still playing with Dundalk.
Standing at a high table over a coffee, Bogdan starts running on the spot with his arms tucked in to his stomach. “He is a great guy, honest guy.”
Bogdan remains on good terms and in contact with his former Bolton Wanderers teammate Keith Andrews, too, and his tone changes when he speaks of his experiences with a teenaged Caoimhin Kelleher as his own Liverpool career was coming to an end.
“This guy,” he says. “Whatever this guy gets in his career he f***ing deserves 110 per cent because I have seen the work he has done. This guy works so f***ing hard.”
How so?
“OK, let me tell you. I was injured. I went to train with the U23s. He was there and I was like ‘wow, ok, this guy is different’. Yes he has talent, that is clear to see, but he works as if it is all he wants to do.
“He would train with the first team, then he would come back and train with the reserves. He would keep training by himself. Then he would go to the gym. He would stay there until it was dark. He would leave when everyone was at home. It could be 7pm.
“You could see it in his eyes, he has something special in him. It’s his personality, he is calm and he has shown in this season that if someone else wants him he is ready for them to pay the money.
“He could be No.1 at Liverpool by all means, of course Alisson makes that hard but this guy will succeed in his career.”
It’s Kelleher’s grá for work that has stuck with Bogdan.
The Hungarian word for work is munka, and it’s that mentality that sets Szoboszlai apart from so many of his peers – and compatriots who went before.
“He is confident, very confident and always was the guy who was the best in his age [group] growing up. But it’s not just that talent. The same like Kelleher. Szoboszlai has put the f***ing hours in,” Bogdan says of the superstar who missed the last Euros due to injury.
“And when he plays he wants responsibility. He loves it and has a stature. He’s a winner and he’s a winner because he has put so much f***ing work and effort in to get where he has.
“We respect that in Hungary because in the past we’ve seen guys who are so f***ing talented but didn’t put the work in and then drifted away.
“His father is a big reason for that,” Bogdan says. “He has been a big influence on his son.”
He’s not wrong.
Zsolt Szoboszlai set up his own academy so he could oversee his son’s development rather than leave it to other schoolboy coaches – he did so with his friend László, whose son Bendegúz Bolla is also now part of the Hungary squad at Euro 2024.
“Many people make the mistake of dreaming. We did not dream, but always paid attention to the task before us and progressed step by step,” Zsolt said previously.
Szoboszlai and Bolla would train for six hours a day from the age of 10 and in an interview Bolla explained how Szoboszlai would have to do drills with golf balls in his hands so he was so technically proficient receiving the ball that he did get into the habit of needing to drag or hold opponents.
By 16 he was playing for Liefering, the reserves of Salzburg, in the Austrian second division.
A year later moved to their first team, winning three Austrian Bundesliga titles in a row before Leizpig paid €20 million to make him Hungary’s most expensive export in January 2021.
That valutation soared by another €50m when Liverpool signed him last summer.
And it all started with the dribbling and ball control drills that he had to do inside the small apartment he grew up in.
“Because we had no garden,” Szoboszlai explained previously. “If the water was still in the bottles, it was easier to dribble past them. But if there wasn’t any in, it was a lot harder. My dad would pour the water out almost every single time.”
No wonder Bogdan hails his quick feet.
“He is so good and confident in the short spaces. So good. He is never surprised or worried when the ball is there. And when he goes to the Euros, he won’t be star struck by anything.”
The hard work has been worth it to this point.
