From Nyírlugos to Debrecen

Nyírlugos, situated on the boundary of 2 of the eastern counties of Hungary, only received town status in 2005. Its population is less than 3000, and up until recently its name did not mean much for football fans.
But thanks to Balázs Dzsudzsák, renowned player of PSV Eindhoven and the Hungarian national team, Nyírlugos is now visible on the football-map of the country, as he was born here on 23rd December, 1986. His family lived close to the local football pitch, and as his father himself played in the Nyírlugos team, young Balazs was a regular visitor among the players. It also turned out quite soon that he is very talented. He was already chasing the ball at the age of 4–5 at the local nursery, and in primary school (where his mother worked as a teacher) team captains fought over the privilege to have him on their team. So his family decided that it would be worthwhile if Balazs took up football seriously.
The best opportunity to do this was at the nearby settlement of Nyíradony, where a local branch of the Italian Football-school of Debrecen operated – famous for training new prospective players in the area. The club was founded in 2000 and is considered to be one of the best schools of Hungary. Well-known players such as János Balogh, Tibor Tisza and Dániel Tőzsér were raised here – they all became first rank footballers, and later members of the national team. No wonder that his father was happy to transport him to Debrecen a little later for daily training, he knew his son was in good hands. His talent was soon recognised by Debrecen VSC (or Loki, as supporters like to call them; a nickname for Debrecen Locomotive Sports Club); the team’s management always kept an eye on the activity of the football-school, and picked promising pupils for themselves.

From youth championship to cap award

Thus the teenager Balázs joined the Debrecen club (DVSC), and with Debrecen’s youth teams he could take part in national competitions. In the 2000–2001 season for instance DVSC came third in the U14 championship and Dzsudzsák was a regular player on the team, he played against Vasas for the bronze medal too. 2 years later, in the 2002–2003 season he was already one of the best players of the championship as he was on the scoresheet 20 times, coming fifth on the list of scorers. In that season he played 4 times in Loki’s reserve team, so no wonder that he got invited to the youth national team. There again he played brilliantly.
The U17 team, directed by István Varga got into the top 8 of the continent, after winning their preliminary round with Switzerland, Albania and the host Greece. The European Championship did not turn out so well, the Hungarian team lost all 3 matches, but it was clear that Balázs was one of the best players of his age.
A year later he was already performing among the U19s: he scored 2-2 goals to both the hosts and the Greek in the first round of the EC on Faroe Islands, thus playing an important role in getting the team into the second round. These matches were held in Hungary where their performance did not come up to expectations: they lost to Armenia and Belgium, although against Belgium it was Balázs who scored a consolation goal.
At that time Balázs was playing for Létavértes as a loan player, a third level club, basically a branch of DVSC. Young and talented Balázs excelled in the third level too, so he only had to spend 6 months in the team of Létavértes, and in January 2005 he was ordered back by DVSC to play in the first squad officially.

Speedy career with Loki

In the team of Debrecen fighting for championship, he was at first a substitute player, but as early as 2005 he was introduced on the first level. He was first sent on by Attila Supka in the 20. round of the championship, in the home fixture with MTK Budapest. He went on to replace Zsombor Kerekes in the 79. minute when the score was 3-0 to Debrecen. Apart from this he was sent on another time: on the 28. day of the season against Békéscsaba, in exchange for crowd favourite Tamás Sándor. Sándor scored his second just minutes before, so the substitution was partly a tribute to his achievement and to the fact that winning 3 points secured Debrecen their first ever championship.

Due to this the club qualified to enter the Champions League the next year, where in the preliminary rounds they first beat Hajduk Split, then held fast against Manchester United – even though they could not beat the Red Devils. Dzsudzsák did not get a chance to play against the English team, but he played against Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA cup in Hungary. It is another matter that everybody remembers this match with a heavy heart, as the Ukrainian team managed to win 2-0 even in Hungary.
In autumn Balázs was mostly substitute in the Debrecen team, but he got his chances in spring and scored grateful goals in return.
His first success was against Diósgyőr in the 21. round (his first goal on the first level), then in May he scored a more important goal, when Debrecen was welcoming Ferencváros: as member of the starting eleven he took the net of the green-white team in the 38. minute. DVSC won the match 3-1 and with this victory they managed to catch up with tabelle leader Újpest, and what’s more, in the remaining 2 match-days they got in the lead again, defending their championship title. Balázs was out on the pitch on 10 occasions in the league, scored twice, and was recorded among the biggest promises of Hungarian football.

Another championship title, caps, offers from abroad

In the first half of the next season he was considered as set with the team, and he was doing ok, especially after the Czech Miroslav Beránek got to train the team.
In October 2006 he was forced to miss several weeks owing to an accident: the midfielder was on his way home to Nyírlugos when he crashed into a minibus from behind. His car span around several times then was stopped by a railway-dike. He was fortunate to get away only with a break in his hand and concussion.
During the winter preparation he was again in full gear and consequently in top form in spring. In the first half of the season he managed one score “only”, but was successful 6 times in the spring of 2007, scoring doubles against both Fehérvár and Diósgyőr, thus contributing to Loki’s being champion for the third time in a row. At the end of the season he was awarded the cup named after Ferenc Puskás, which goes to the new talent of the championship.
At this time many foreign clubs were already paying close attention to his performance, and in June 2007 he was able to make his intro in the national squad as well. He first pulled on the jersey with the Hungarian crest against the EC holder Greeks in the qualifying round of the EC, when he was sent on for the last 10 minutes in exchange for Tamás Priskin. In the summer of 2007 among many other teams Balázs’s name was associated with Ajax Amsterdam of Holland, Dinamo Kiev of Ukraine, Chievo Verona of Italy and Plymouth Argyle of England, but that time he stayed in Debrecen. In August 2007 he called even more attention to himself when playing great football at the friendly match against Italy, which Hungary won 3-1. He also excelled in the Hungarian first level, out of 11 rounds he scored 5 times. And in October came the sensational news: Balázs Dzsudzsák signed a 5-year contract with the Dutch champion PSV Eindhoven. They paid two million euros for the player who was to join the Dutch team in the summer of 2008, but things sped up and PSV ordered the Hungarian winger to join them mid-season, in January 2008.

Conquering Eindhoven was a matter of weeks

However surprising it was of PSV to ask Balázs to join mid-season, it was even more unexpected that he was put in the starting eleven by coach Sef Vergoossen just days after his arrival in Eindhoven, and against Feyenoord, which was second in the championship. The new transfer was allowed to debut on a real top game and was no disappointment: ha played the match all along, had several good moves, 3 shots and a near miss in the finish; the match was won 1–0.
It was not long until the first goal though, it came on the next match-day: in the 12. minute of the match against Venlo the Peruvian Jefferson Farfán managed to get as far as the goal line on the right, and his flat pass was forwarded by Dzsudzsák into the goal without further ado. The success-series did not end there: 2 weeks later, against Excelsior Rotterdam Balázs again reached the goal with perfect timing, but the biggest news was his score against Ajax Amsterdam. On the match against the all-time rival he did not shoot from close quarters, but from a distance of some 20 meters, scoring a very spectacular goal in the bottom-right corner. This goal also got PSV the lead against Ajax, the match ended 2-0, and with this basically the championship was decided. No wonder that after this Balázs was almost always a member of the starting eleven in the season, and even though he could not manage more goals, he had 2 assists, proving that he managed to pick up the rhythm of Dutch football.

Change of coach, a hat-trick and goal record

For the 2008–2009 season the club hired a new coach, but Huub Stevens’ figure split public opinion. He emphasized the importance of defence, and although Dzsudzsák was left out of the starting eleven only twice, players were left with less freedom. This showed in their results too: PSV, who had won the previous 4 championships, was not even playing for the gold medal this time, and even in the Champions League they came last in their group. Here Dzsudzsák made his debut in the fixture against Liverpool FC, and after only 3 minutes he assisted Danny Koevermans – despite this he was only admitted to the starting eleven on the last 2 matches.
Poor results and rumours of conflicts within the team were tolerated only until January 2009 by the management, then they ended contract with Stevens based on mutual agreement. He was replaced by his former assistant, Dwight Lodeweges. Under his guidance both PSV and Balázs grew wings: against ADO Den Haag the Hungarian midfielder scored a hat-trick, which he had not managed to achieve before in his senior career. He carried on shooting goals; in the first half of the season he had 2 scores, and 9 in addition after February, thus he ended the season with 11 goals, which is a personal record for him. He scored against SC Heerenveen, Sparta Rotterdam, Ajax Amsterdam (a magnificent free kick), Heracles Almelo and Willem II, and came second on the list of scorers after Ibrahim Afellay. He did not excel only in scoring, he also had 9 assists. PSV came fourth in the end in the league, and was this way qualified for the European League (former UEFA Cup), where Fred Rutten is going to direct the squad, him being appointed coach for 2009–2010.
The Dutch connection follows Dzsudzsák even to Hungary, here Erwin Koeman is manager of the Hungarian international team, where Dzsudzsák is considered base-player. He scored his first in the jersey with the Hungarian crest on it in a friendly against Greece, in the Puskás Ferenc Stadium, with one of his now usual 20m belters. Together with the international team they are fighting for the same goal: to get the Hungarian squad to the World Championship once again after such a long time.