OTP Bank Liga: Numerous young talents caught the eye

As in recent years, there are plenty of young Hungarian players (footballers born after January 1st 1998 is this year's definition of a young player) who've been at the forefront of the OTP Bank Liga season and who have proved that they can improve top teams despite their lack of experience. Not all clubs gave young players a key role this season, but when they did, the effects were usually anything but negative. One outstanding youngster at ZTE, for example, is regular U21 national-team goalkeeper Patrik Demjén, who played all 33 league matches and contributed to the fight to avoid relegation by producing consistent, reliable performances.

One of Demjen's teammates in defence was another Hungary U21 player, Bendegúz Bolla, who, according to InStat, produced the best overall performance of all the young Hungarians across the season, playing his part in the team's success with 23 goals and two assists in 2392 minutes. At the RangAdó end-of-season awards, this achievement was recognised when he received the award for young player of the year. Of all the young outfield players, only Erik Kusnyir from Debrecen played more minutes in the league (2535 minutes).

Elsewhere, Márk Kovácsréti, born in 2000, was in great form in the spring, spending 1426 minutes on the pitch for Kisvárda, for whom he scored one goal and made four assists, while Tamás Kiss played 1,498 minutes for DVTK and helped the team from Miskolc by setting up two goals. The fifth young man to have played more than 1000 minutes in league matches was Kaposvár defender Alex Szabó.

Furthermore, there were some who were able to draw attention to themselves despite only being given relatively few opportunities, such as Zsombor Bévárdi of Kaposvár, who, although he only started five games and played 501 minutes, still scored three goals for the club from Somogy county. Norbert Kundrák of Debrecen has two goals and an assist to his name after completing 749 minutes, while Puskás Akadémia winger László Deutsch, scored one goal and set up one goal in 955 minutes.

Bence Banó-Szabó of Budapest Honvéd would surely have played even more than 875 minutes (scoring one goal and making another) if he hadn't suffered a serious injury, which wiped out any chance he had of being invloved in springtime. This is the reason Norbert Szendrei was given several opportunities in the Honvéd lineup and he didn't disappoint, helping the red and blacks with a goal and an assist in 713 minutes and finishing second behind Bolla in the RangAdó young player of the year award category.

Amongst the rest of the promising players coming through, Mátyás Tajti can now also boast a top-flight goal, the midfielder alrady having confirmed his departure from Diósgyőr for a foreign club at the beginning of the season, but still scoring two goals on his farewell appearance. In addition to Tajti, Bálint Tömösvári (Honvéd), Bence Szabó (DVSC), Filip Dragóner (Mezőkövesd), Zsolt Máté (Újpest), Nándor Tamás (Puskás Akadémia) and Ákos Borbély (Kaposvár) also scored their maiden OTP Bank Liga goals.

If we look back at number of minutes played, it's also surely worth mentioning those aged 20 years or under, a group which includes Márton Radics (Puskás Akadémia, 964 minutes), Kornél Szűcs (DVTK, 478 mins), Ádám Pintér (DVSC, 637 mins), Donát Orosz (DVTK, 218 mins) and Péter Baráth (DVSC, 213 mins). The most young footballers handed opportunities by any one team during the season numbered nine, that group of promising young players belonging to Hungarian Cup winners Honvéd.

Thanks to the system which measures productivity, the inclusion of young players has also become financially worthwhile for the clubs giving them their education. Of the Hungarian footballers born after January 1, 1998, Erik Kusnyir 'produced' the most productivity points this season, ahead of Bendegúz Bolla, Tamás Kiss and Patrik Demjén.