PM Orbán wants more Hungarian clubs reaching the level of Fradi

The Puskás Academy has a responsibility to develop soccer players with whom Hungarian soccer can make its way back to the world’s top ranks, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the academy’s founder, said in an interview with the academy’s website.

The academy’s job is to bring the best out of the talent who are admitted there, Orbán said in the interview published on his YouTube channel on Thursday. One of the biggest challenges of Hungarian soccer is the development of talent below the age of 12-13, he said, noting that players tended to develop a number of skills by the age of 12 that they later could not.

The prime minister said Hungarian soccer was “not part of the entertainment industry”, but a part of Hungarian national identity. “We’re not looking to have fun and clap from the grandstands for talented players from faraway lands; we want to see our own children,” he said. “If we give that up then Hungarian soccer becomes pointless.” Orbán said this was why the aim was for the Puskas Academy to have both great international players whom young talent could look up to, but also home-grown talent.