HUNGARY

Over the years, we have been to Hungary on several football trips - most recently in October 2025 when we visited the Groupama Arena in Budapest to watch the country’s most successful football team, Ferencváros, who were then coached by the Irishman Robbie Keane.

But it was their opponents that day that we were more interested in: Paks have a Hungarian only recruitment policy, making them one of few clubs in world football - such as FC Supra du Québec in Canada or Athletic Bilbao in Spain - who only field players born or developed in the local area.

Paks’ main fan group - as you can see from their banner - is called Atomic Strike. They are named that way because their town is home to Hungary’s only nuclear power plant, which generates half of the electricity nationwide.

The previous trip was in February 2023, when we saw the second-tier match between Győr (now the national champions) and Haladás at the rather unique ETO Park, where you can watch the action unfold from the balcony of the hotel located behind the goal.

A curious side note of that trip was that at the time of our visit, hundreds of women were packed into the hotel lobby for a special seminar called ‘How To Get A Man’ with a famous Hungarian relationship guru!