We do not know if Hungary will continue their path in this Euro, waiting to know if they will be among the four best thirds in the group stage to be able to reach the round of 16, but we are certain that it is finished for his attacker Barnabas Varga.
Sunday evening, he had to leave his teammates prematurely, struck (61st) by Scotland goalkeeper (1-0), Angus Gunn, causing several fractures to his face. The Magyar team lost its best striker, with a rather atypical career, since he has exploded for a little over a year in Ferencvaros and in the selection, when he will be 30 years old on October 25.
The rush to Austria
The Austrian Championship is a gateway, at least hoped for, for many good Hungarian players, who then dream of joining a major European Championship, often the Bundesliga. But if Barnabas Varga took this path, he did not completely achieve his goals.
At 19, he played in D4 in Eberau, was still only an amateur and was thinking of stopping football, before attending the top Austrian level in Mattersburg, only hampered by injuries and playing very little in two years and half. He therefore returns to D2, to Lafnitz (Jan. 2019-Jan. 2020), before returning to the country, to second-rate clubs. He first revealed himself at Gyimot (D2), before exploding at Paksi FC, during the 2022-2023 season, with 29 goals in 34 matches (best director), in the local elite.
“He is a very mobile player, he goes deep and he is very skillful in front of goal. He’s an excellent finisher.”
Loïc Nego, teammate at Ferencvaros
The stats of the greatest in Europe
The one we call by the diminutive “Barni” therefore signs for Ferencvaros in the summer of 2023, for 800,000 euros. And, in the best Hungarian club, he will confirm his effectiveness, since this season, he has scored 29 goals in 40 club matches, in all competitions, including 20 in 24 matches, without forgetting his six assists in the Championship, of which he was a great architect of the title.
Best director and voted best player in the country, “He had been scoring goals in the Hungarian Championship for several seasons, before arriving in the national team and signing for Ferencvaros, the Hungarian PSG, explains his teammate in the Magyar jersey, Loïc Nego. He had a very rapid rise. He is a very mobile player, he goes deep and he is very skillful in front of goal. He is an excellent finisher. » Particularly with his head, although he only measures 1.81 m, but he has excellent timing, a sense of movement… and an aggressiveness which has earned him numerous yellow cards.
He joined the national team in 2023
Called up for the first time for the selection on March 23, 2023 for a friendly match in Estonia (1-0), he celebrated his first cap four days later, against Bulgaria (3-0), as part of these qualifications at the Euro, during which he scored four goals (in 6 matches), as many as star Dominik Szoboszlai.
Fifteen months after his international debut, he has 7 in 14 outings, including one against Switzerland (1-3, June 15), for his first meeting in a major competition. In coach Marco Rossi’s 3-4-2-1, he took the place at the forefront of the very physical (1.91 m) Martin Adam (29 years old, 25 caps, 3 goals). The latter, now a scorer in South Korea (Ulsan), will have to fill the void left by Varga, if Hungary were to continue in this Euro, of course.
