Alexandra Szarvas is the new Hungary Women head coach

The 31 year-old has extensive domestic and international experience as a player and coach and returned home to Hungary to join the MTK coaching staff in the summer of 2023 after a long stay abroad.

Born in Fót in 1992, Szarvas won the Hungarian league championship and Cup as a player before moving to play in Germany and then Switzerland. After finishing active football, she managed both junior boys' and women's adult teams and, since returning home, has led the U19 national team. Under Szarvas’s leadership, Hungary Women's U19s finished third in a strong qualifying group for the European Championship finals in France, thanks to which the team has maintained its A-League membership and will also be among the best teams in Europe as they contest the European Championship qualifiers this spring.

The new head coach will make her competitive debut as Hungary head coach in the team’s first European qualifiers in April, when Azerbaijan, Turkey and Switzerland will be their group opponents.

"I can't imagine a greater honour than when a professional can manage the national team of their country, so I will do the job to the best of my knowledge and with full effort," Szarvas told mlsz.hu. "I’ve watched many foreign and domestic matches, so I know exactly the strength of Hungarian women's football. I see the strengths but also the weaknesses, which is why my technical staff and I will work to give the players as much help as possible to develop".

Regarding the composition of the national team's squad and the aims she’ll set, Szarvas added that: “Today we can say that there are a good number of Hungarian women playing football in elite leagues abroad. I don't want to make any promises, so instead I’ll say that we’ll fight with total dedication and humility in every match and that we’ll always strive to be better together than we were the day before. With this mentality, I’d like to contribute to the most important strategic objective of the MLSZ presidency, that our women's football catches up with the international elite and becomes more popular here. This target is unthinkable without close cooperation with the clubs. In the near future, I’ll consult with the technical leadership to make our cooperation with the associations effective and to help each other develop. I’m already counting on the support of the fans in our match against Azerbaijan in April, because the women's national team is in great need of increased publicity and support”.

Hungary Women's European Championship qualifying fixtures in 2024:

April 5: Azerbaijan (home)

April 9: Turkey (away)

May 31: Switzerland (away)

June 4 Switzerland (home)

July 12: Azerbaijan (away)

July 16: Turkey (home)

ALEXANDRA SZARVAS

Born: September 7, 1992

Clubs as a player: Fóti SE (2003 spring), Gödöllői Góliát (2003-2005), Belvárosi Námeni LC-FTC (2005-2008), Viktória FC (2008-2011), FC Bayern München (2011-2012), VfL Sindelfingen (2012-2013, Bundesliga I), SC Kriens (2013-2014, Swiss First Division), FC Basel (2014-2017).

Honours:

Hungarian league champion (1): Viktória FC (2008-2009)

Hungarian league runner-up: Viktória FC (2009-2010, 2010-2011)

Women's Hungarian Cup winner (2): Viktória FC (2009, 2011)

German Cup winner: FC Bayern Munich (2012)