Gazdag doubles up at football's end-of-season awards

The 2020-2021 OTP Bank Liga season came to an end over the weekend, having provided many memorable moments over the past ten months. In addition to reaching the Champions League group stages and facing some of the biggest clubs in Europe in the autumn, Ferencváros also won the OTP Bank Liga championship for the third time in a row, meaning the Green and Whites will again take their place in the Champions League qualifiers.

Fradi's city rivals Újpest beat the odds to lift the MOL Hungarian Cup after defeating MOL Fehérvár and will enter UEFA's new European Conference League. Domestic league runners-up Puskás Akadémia will contest Europa League group-stage qualification this summer while third-placed team MOL Fehérvár FC will join Újpest in the Conference League.

At this week's RangAdó award ceremony, held over three consecutive nights, MLSZ announced the winners of seven categories in men's football: Player of the Year, Discovery of the Year, Top Goalscorer, Best Coach, Best Referee, Best Goal and the Fair Play award recipient.

The final results of three categories (Best Player, Discovery and Best Coach) were decided by votes submitted by clubs, with the club captain, head coach and the oldest and youngest footballers voting for the best three players in each category. The referee of the year was elected by MLSZ's Refereeing Committee.

This year's award for the best referee of the year went to Gergő Bogár, who received his award from Zoltán Gera:

“It is a great honour for me to thank my wife and family for their support and the colleagues I have been able to work with this season", Bogár said on receiving his prize.

Szabolcs Schön, formerly of MTK this season and now of FC Dallas in the USA, was voted Discovery of the Year, the youngster commenting:

"In my career so far, I've not won an award at professional level, so this is the first time as an adult. It was a good season for me and the team too, and I did everything I could to help them and score goals".

Coach of the year Serhiy Rebrov, who won the championship with Ferencváros again this year, admitted this had been his toughest season yet:

“Clearly this has been the hardest of the last three years to play and to motivate the team without fans being present at matches. However, the players now know my expectations, and know with their eyes closed what I want to see from them on the pitch. In the beginning, few believed that Ferencváros would reach the Champions League group stages because we had four qualifying rounds to negotiate first. However, our team wasn’t looking at who would be on the pitch, but rather played their own game. We were ready for this huge workload and luckily there was choice and rivalry in every position, so no one knew who would be selected for the next match. Next year, the team will be abe to use more experience to help it return to the top table. I've also gained new experience and had huge success with the players. All three of my seasons here have been very important to me and I am very happy to have the opportunity to work here".

Pál Orosz, CEO of Ferencváros who won the Fair Play award, was the first of the winners on Tuesday to receive his club's award in the M4 Sport studio, before Paks' János Hahn, who scored 22 league goals this season, received the RangAdó Award for being the OTP Bank Liga's top goalscorer.

The following day, only one footballer had to be invited to the M4 Sport studio to receive the awards for Best Player and Best Goal, Dániel Gazdag winning in both categories. The goal deemed to be the Goal of the Year came last September in the DVTK versus Budapest Honvéd league clash, Gazdag commenting on his team's overall performance thus:

“It was my best season so far, but the team didn’t perform as we'd planned. I felt throughout the season that we needed someone to take the group on their back and secure points with their goals, and I’m glad I could be the one to do it. I've developed a lot mentally and become more confident, and the goals I've scored have helped a lot with this".