Újpest's Slovenian striker to face Hungary but Manchester United star misses out

2026. március. 25., 23:51 |

Aljosa Matko, who leads the Hungarian Fizz League's goalscoring charts, has been called up to the Slovenia national squad preparing for their friendly matches against Hungary and Montenegro. Fellow striker Benjamin Sesko, who was recommended to Manchester United by a Hungarian scout eight years ago, had been due to join him, but unfortunately, the latter has been forced to withdraw from the squad through injury.

Hungary will play its first match of the year against Slovenia on 28th March in the Puskás Arena and ahead of the encounter, it is already known that two footballers who play in the Fizz Liga, Hungary's top tier of professional football, could play for their opponent. One is MTK Budapest midfielder Adrian Zeljkovic, while the other, Aljosa Matko, is not only Újpest's top goalscorer so far this season, but also joint top scorer in the whole division, tied with Dániel Lukács with 13 goals. The striker had been confident that his club colleague and countryman, Nejc Gradisar, would also receive a call-up from Slovenia head coach Bostjan Cesar, but when the squad was announced, it turned out that Matko would be the only Újpest FC representative in Slovenia's latest squad.

Furthermore, Manchester United star Benjamin Sesko had been expected to play in both matches, but Cezar received bad news in recent days, specifically that the striker is suffering from a minor injury, so will remain in England to be treated by the club's medical staff.

Talking of Sesko!

Last year, Slovenian media outlet Planet Nogomet reported an interesting story. The article was published after the Slovenian striker moved from RB Leipzig to Manchester for a record fee of 76.5 million Euros. According to the article, United had already considered signing the young talent in 2018, when he was playing for the Domzale club, and that had come thanks to Péter Szőke, who helped the 'Red Devils' as a scout between 2016 and 2024. He had spotted Sesko playing for the Slovenia U17 national team against Switzerland and immediately indicated to the United executives that it would be worth making an offer for him. Indeed, an offer of 1.6 million Euros was made but Domzale declined and just months later, he was sold to RB Salzburg for 2.8 million Euros. The rest is history: Sesko moved up a level to Leipzig in the summer of 2023 and then to Manchester two years later. If United's management had been willing to dig a little deeper back in 2018, they could have saved tens of millions of Euros...

It's possible that Péter Szőke, who now works for Belgian side Leuven, will also be in the Puskás Aréna on Saturday and it's not impossible for the other great Slovenia star of the current time, Jan Oblak, to also appear. Due to injury, the 82-times-capped national-team goalkeeper won't be available to Bostjan Cezar, who was appointed in January this year and will make his debut as national-team head coach against Hungary, but Cezar has intimated that the Atlético Madrid legend will at least be present with the squad. Andraz Sporar, Slovan Bratislava striker and fans' favourite will be able to play against Hungary though, and if he does, he'd make his 65th international appearance.

"Oblak is not in the squad because he's struggling with an injury, but I spoke to him and he's promised to spend a few days with us anyway," revealed Cezar, who himself played 101 times for Slovenia as a defender and who also added that veteran Miha Zajc name was missing because the 31-year-old Dinamo Zagreb midfielder, capped 39 times, has retired from international football. "Our most important task now is to ensure that the mentality and attitude of the team are in perfect order, because this has not always been the case recently and we need players who are proud to fight for Slovenia!", Cezar concluded.

SLOVENIA SQUAD:

Goalkeepers: Igor Vekic (Vejle), Matevz Vidovsek (Olimpija Ljubljana), Zan Luk Leban (Celje)

Defenders: Jaka Bijol (Leeds United), Zan Karnicnik (Celje), Erik Janza (Górnik Zabrze), Vanja Drkusic (Zenit), David Zec (Holstein Kiel), Marcel Ratnik (Al-Ain), Jost Urbancic (Olimpija)

Midfielders: Petar Stojanovic (Legia Warszawa), Benjamin Verbic (Levadiakos), Adam Gnezda Cerin (Panathinaikos), Timi Max Elsnik (Crvena Zvezda), Jon Gorenc Stankovic (Sturm Graz), Tomi Horvat (Bristol City), Svit Seslar (Celje), Tamar Svetlin (Korona Kielce), Adrian Zeljkovic (MTK Budapest), Danijel Sturm (Sigma Olomouc), Tjas Begic (Sampdoria)

Forwards: Andraz Sporar (Slovan Bratislava), Zan Vipotnik (Swansea), Aljosa Matko (Újpest FC).