Ádám Szalai announces his international retirement

Hungary's national-team captain and foremost striker of the past decade announced his international retirement at a press conference held at Telki training centre, having already informed the team and the MLSZ leadership beforehand.

"I've thought this decision through over the course of several months, perhaps even almost a year. The national team is on a very good path; we have a great team led by an excellent national team coach. The next competitive match will be the Euro qualifiers in March, so I've tried to find a moment to announce my retirement which will mean there's time to figure out who will replace me in the future. It was always a big dream of mine to play in the Hungarian national team so playing in two European Championships and leading the team as captain has been a huge experience for me. Support and criticism also helped me to become an adult, a real personality. I would like to thank all the national team coaches I've played under, as well as my current and former teammates and fans. In recent years, we have been able to experience wonderful moments together, and the kind of togetherness, love for the team and patriotism that I have experienced is, I dare say, unique in the whole world. I'm confident that the national team will continue on this path, even without me," Szalai explained.

Regarding his captain's retirement, head coach Marco Rossi emphasised that replacing Ádám Szalai will be a serious challenge both as a striker and as a team captain, because he's been an outstanding servant of the national team, both personally and professionally, in whose history he has inscribed his name in capital letters throughout his career.

"Many thoughts have arisen in my mind since I learned about our team captain's decision. We are losing an extremely important player by virtue of Ádám's decision. This isn't a happy moment, but I trust that we will overcome this situation as soon as possible. As a human being, I have the utmost respect for the situation, even if it must be admitted that Ádám's decision may cause problems for us. Ádám was a leading figure in the team who could always be counted on. Leadership is not something that can be learned and his leadership skills are recognised by everyone in the team, he iss considered the leader and captain of the team in the absolute sense. There are no irreplaceable people, but it won't be easy now; I hope we find the person who can replace Ádám", Rossi opined.

Ádám Szalai made his debut for Hungary's full national team on 11th February 2009 against Israel and scored his first goal on 8th October 2010 against San Marino, a game in which he also scored his first hat-trick. The striker, who currently plays his club football for Swiss side FC Basel, has played 84 times for the national team, scoring their first goal at the 2016 European Championship in a 2-0 victory against Austria, and also scoring against Germany in the following edition of the tournament last year, by which time he was also Hungary's captain. Szalai scored a total of 25 times for the national team.