Men's Under 17s: Preisinger eyes successful Euro campaign

Football in the early 1990s was changing across Europe and the situation was no different in Hungary. One player who emerged at this time of gradually increasing exposure and modernisation was Sándor Preisinger, a promising striker with provincial club Zalaegerszegi TE who topped the goalscoring charts as his team won promotion to Hungary's top tier in 1993/94 and then became his nation's most prolific forward in the national first division the following season, aged just 21. Such form eventually earned Presinger a call-up to the national team and a place in the Hungary squad for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, where he appeared in two group-stage matches.

A big move to domestic power MTK Budapest followed, where the experience of winning multiple Hungarian league and cup titles over four years led to five full caps for Hungary. These experiences now stand him in good stead as the successful coach of Hungary's Under-17 national squad preparing for the UEFA European Championship in Ireland over the next fortnight, but he has also supplemented this knowledge with UEFA's top coaching qualifications as he strives to hep today's young talents benefit from his quarter of a century in the game.

"I have coaching qualifications including the highest one possible, the Pro Licence," Preisinger explained. "As well as a technical education though, I have individual experience from my playing career which I hope can easily be of relevance to my young players' situations when they face similar challenges. This is how I try to help, so that they can gain as much experience as possible and make the right decisions on the football pitch. I hope I can help them through my own successful career as a footballer and they can take this forward in their own ones."

Of course, football has moved on again from his time playing at the highest level of the Hungarian game a generation ago, but the 45-year old is convinced that a good mentality remains the key to young footballers fulfilling their teenage potential.

"The obstacles are the same (today as they were in the past) in that the mentality of a player when he or she starts out in their career needs to to be one where they are ready to learn and not to think they know everything already. They should be ready to play abroad if they get the chance in order to experience and learn more things. I think mentality is the most important thing, so that someone is humble in every moment and approaches football in a way that they can continue to develop. For a good number of players, there is the opportunity to develop further, much further, but for some young players, they can be their own worst enemy in terms of their ego, their approach to football and to the work involved."

Such issues don't seem prevalent in his own squad though, as evidenced by qualification for a tournament which Hungary has missed out on all too often over the recent past.

"It is a great success for us to be at this tournament, something which has not happened too regularly to us in recent years. We'll do our best to do ourselves justice but we know some very, very tough matches await us. Thankfully, the facilities here in Ireland are very good and the hotel is perfect. We knew in advance that the pitches would be good; they are similar to those at Telki (Hungary's national-team training centre) so we're well prepared and looking forward to our first match. We've trained here at the Irish national-team complex which is again similar to Telki, a top European facility and one which is very important to us. We don't know how the weather here will be in the coming days, of course, which could turn out to be a difficulty, but so far there haven't been any negatives and we've certainly been able to prepare properly for the tournament."

Presinger has worked with this group of players for two-and-a-half years now after taking the reins of the Under-15 squad in 2016, so he's well aware of what they're capable of, but he's not setting any targets other than for his players to show they've taken on board what he and his coaching staff have practised with them.

"We'll soon find out what is realistic for us to achieve. I'll be expecting our players to implement in the match what we've practised as much as possible and obviously to put their hearts and souls into achieving victory in each match for as long as they have enough strength to do so. Then, at the end, we'll see where we are.

When we look at our opponents, Portugal are Portugal; they stand out in every game as a team and individually. I think the other three teams, Russia, Iceland and Hungary are at the same level as each other, so it will be a very tight contest between them to secure the second qualification spot for the knockout stages alongside Portugal, but obviously we're not going to give up in the match against them either. We'll treat all our opponents the same and try to win as many points as is needed over the three matches to finish in the top two places in the group."

Hungary Men's U17 squad (surnames first):

Goalkeepers:

Hegyi Krisztián (West Ham United)
Megyeri Gábor (Honvéd-MFA)
Vaits Marcell (Puskás Akadémia)

Defenders:

Buna Gábor (Honvéd-MFA)
Posztobányi Patrik (Puskás Akadémia)
Balogh Botond (MTK Budapest)
Orosz Donát (DVTK)
Horváth Milán (Budapest Honvéd)
Dávid Zoltán (Békéscsaba)
Bekker Roland (Mönchengladbach)

Midfielders:

Kata Mihály (MTK Budapest)
Major Sámuel (Salzburg)
Ominger Gergő (Puskás Akadémia)
Kosznovszky Márk (MTK Budapest)

Forwards:

Molnár Rajmund (Honvéd-MFA)
Zuigeber Ákos (MTK Budapest)
Németh András (Genk)
Komáromi György (Puskás Akadémia)
László Dávid (Honvéd-MFA)
Szalay Szabolcs (Illés Akadémia)
Kalmár Benedek (Puskás Akadémia)

Hungary's U17 European Championship group-stage fixtures (all times CET):

Saturday 4th May: Hungary v Portugal, 20:00, UCD Bowl, Dublin
Tuesday 7th May: Iceland v Hungary, 13:00, Whitehall Stadium, Dublin
Friday 10th May: Russia v Hungary, 18:00, Regional Sport Centre, Waterford