How sports can affect a whole country’s mood even during a pandemic?
Sports are important in people’s lives, many of us do some kind of exercise, others just like to watch and talk about sport. Sports have a lot of positive effects, but for me the most important is that they connect people. Every country has its own favorite and most popular sport, and in some places, it has a tremendous impact on people and social relations.
Hungary is one of those places where the number one sport connects individuals and groups more than anything else. Soccer is the most popular sport in Hungary. The press and the people go crazy every time, when the Hungarian national team is going to play. This is one of those moments when the whole country comes together and roots for the same goal, for the Hungarian success. In the past the Hungarian soccer was very strong and famous, everybody who likes soccer heard about the Golden Team, back in the 1950s. The legendary 6-3 against England in 1953, and the loss of the World Cup final against Germany in 1954…good and bad memories. Soccer fans all over the world heard the names of Puskas, Kocsis, Bozsik, Czibor and Kubala; they were legends, and they are still considered as the greatest football players of all time. For example, my brother’s coach calls him Puskas, because he plays really well and he is also Hungarian.

Then something happened after that famous generation, the Hungarian soccer started to struggle and weaken. Hungary failed to qualify for the World Cups and the European Championship. People started to get frustrated and sad, because the national team was unable to qualify for major tournaments. No matter how famous coaches led our national team, they were unable to reach the goal. We had some very serious losses during 2010 and 2015, we lost to Andorra, not to mention the disastrous 1-8 with the Netherlands. Soccer fans were always cheering, they always hoped that the national team could do better, but it didn’t come in the last 30 or more years. There were matches where the national team played so badly that the ultras made the soccer players take off their shirts, because they were not worthy to stand for the Hungarian national team. These were really tough times.
