Gavin Cooney

IRISH CALL-UP Sammie Szmodics has been left bewildered by comments made by Hungary manager Marco Rossi in relation to his international football status. 

England-born Szmodics is eligible to represent Ireland or Hungary, the former through his late grandmother and the latter through his grandfather. 

Rossi last week said he made contact with Szmodics to ask if he had any interest in playing for Hungary, which then publicly leaked out into the public domain. Rossi said it was “very unpleasant” to hear about the issue in the media, claiming it was leaked by Szmodics’ or his representatives to improve his Irish prospects. 

“We don’t need such a person, even if he is a technically good player”, said Rossi of Szmodics. 

Speaking to the media at FAI HQ today, Szmodics said he never had any contact from Rossi or anyone at the Hungarian FA, dismissing the story as “nonsense.” 

“It was all nonsense really”, said Szmodics. “My grandad was Hungarian, that’s where the surname comes from. It is just something that never interested me.

“Their manager has come out and said what he has said about me. I am not really sure where it come from as I have never spoken to anyone from that country. I am not really sure where it has come from because I am fully focused on playing for Ireland.”

Szmodics was first brought into the Irish set-up in the summer of 2021, but was forced to withdraw through injury. There was then a long hold-up owing to paperwork problems, and he ultimately did not make an appearance under Stephen Kenny: withdrawing from last October’s camp for personal reasons and then not picked for the next camp in November. 

He was disappointed about the November snub, given he is amid the best season of his career: Szmodics is the top scorer in the Championship, with 21 goals in 36 games for a Blackburn side struggling at the wrong end of the table. 

“The personal reason was only over that October camp”, said Szmodics. “Family comes first I’m not going to speak about the issue. I had to go home, I had to get back. Obviously you read Twitter and people question the fact if you wanted to play for Ireland which again is ridiculous because it’s something I wanted to do when I was 23 or 24 and got my passport.

“That October camp I had to get back for my family. Listen, I’m disappointed for the November camp that I didn’t get the call but ultimately it’s the manager’s decision and I thought I was doing enough at club level but he chose to go with other people. The past is the past and I’ve got to focus on this camp and future camps and I’ve got to take the opportunity with both hands.” 

Szmodics qualifies to play for Ireland through his late grandmother Annette Hyne, who hailed from Longford. When he signed up to a new agency a few years ago, he informed them of his link with Ireland, from which they got in touch with the FAI and set the wheels in motion. 

Szmodics will likely make his debut in Saturday’s friendly against Belgium at the Aviva Stadium. 

“It’s been a long time coming”, he said. “With the form and amount of games I’ve played – and seeing others make their debut – has made me hungry. I am excited to hopefully get it on the weekend.”

Szmodics is a versatile forward, but says his ideal role is as a number 10. He hopes to bring more firepower to an Irish side whose lack of goals has hampered them. 

“We need to score more goals and create more chances, and hopefully I can help with that. I’m doing it at club level. There are a lot of good players in that changing room and people who miss out on the squad, there are a lot of good technical players. I think we just need more of an attacking threat and you can see in the last two days of training that we’ve got a real clinical attacking presence up front.”