U17 World Cup: Goalkeeper Hegyi talks about his whirlwind 2019 so far

It's been an eventful 2019 so far for Krisztián Hegyi, the 17 year-old goalkeeper from Western Hungary. Firstly, he was instrumental in the Hungary Under-17 team reaching the European Championship in Ireland in May, where they defeated Belgium in a play-off to finish fifth overall, Sándor Preisinger's squad thereby sealing qualification to this month's FIFA U17 World Cup in Brazil. Then, Hegyi signed for English Premier League club West Ham United after reportedly being courted by an impressive array of European giants including Atlético Madrid and Manchester United. Since then, he's had to contend with settling down in Lonodon, one of the world's biggest, most cosmopolitan cities, while maintaining his form, learning the English language and retaining his national-team place. It's naturally not always been easy, but 'Kiki', as he's nicknamed, has negotiated all these challenges successfully so far and is now looking forward to his first chance to impress football fans on the world stage.

"Our first aim this year was to qualify for the Euros and at that time we weren't really thinking about the World Cup, but then we made it to Ireland so it became an aim within the squad - not really outwardly - but everyone had mentioned it and thankfully we succeeded", Krisztián recounts, with a smile. "Since then, everyone has been excitedly looking forward to it - we've talked about it every day".

Soon after the U17 Euro, you signed for a big foreign club and were presented with a new challenge in a completely unfamiliar environment. How did you deal with this?

"Life is a bit easier now because my mother and brother have moved over to England. For the first couple of months of the summer, I was on my own in a halls of residence, but now the three of us are in a flat together so my family is there when I get home. London is nice - very big - and I like it a lot. I head off to training at 8am every day and only come home at 5pm each afternoon, so I'm focusing on football all day. I take English lessons and there's a gym session in there too. When I get home I like to play on my Playstation, listen to music and spend time with my family, whom I can thank for not being alone".

Club life is put on hold now though after your selection for the Hungary Under-17 World Cup squad. When you get back, what will your aims be?

"Yes, I'm only focusing on the World Cup right now and then when I get back to my club obviously I'll train as much as I can. I don't have short-term goals as such but in three or four years' time I'd like to be in the first team squad. I want to stay at West Ham and I'm not thinking of anywhere else. Thankfully, I've made lots of friends, two of whom are Slovak and I get on with them well - they speak one or two words of Hungarian. Actually, one of the other goalkeepers (Daniel Jinadu) is a goalkeeper in Nigeria's U-17 squad (Hungary's first opponents on 26th October) so that's quite an interesting thing! Honestly speaking, I'm not sure if he's their first choice keeper but if he is, it would be good to play against each other in our match".

And how is the dynamic between the goalkeeping stable in the Hungary squad which has travelled to South America?

"There are three of us goalkeepers and we've come to work well together as a good, little team. We push each other on and one of them is also my roommate, so we'll all friends and there's never any animosity. Everyone has their own thoughts about the tournament but we have an aim together as a team and everyone is aiming to qualify from the group. I don't know too much about our group-stage opponents but naturally our backroom staff and video analysers will be watching them and telling us what we need to know before the matches".

So what are the squad's aims out in Brazil?

"We'd like to achieve at least a similar result as in the European Championship and I think the whole country would marvel at a top-five finish. It's always important to concede as few goals as possible but that doesn't just depend on me, but on the defence too. We're a compact team which knows how to attack well with everything starting out from the defence - so far, we've been able to defend very well and start counter attacks from this. As for our rivals, I know about the other four European teams which will be there but not so much much about the teams outside our continent - I just hope we're going stay out there for as long as possible. In terms of relaxation, I'm not sure yet how we'll spend our time off the pitch, but in the past, we've often played the card game Uno together, for example. On the pitch, we hope everyone is going to weigh in with goals and with the squad looking in good shape, it's not the top goalscorer's prize we want to come home with, but rather a medal of some description".

The Hungarian Under-17 team start their FIFA Under-17 World Cup campaign on Saturday 26th October against five-time U17 world champions Nigeria in Goiana. THe match will be broadcast live on m4 Sport TV.