31.10.2013, 09:40
Never think you are good enough

BLOG: László Nagy, the shining star of the Hungarian handball and one of the best snipers in the VELUX EHF Champions League, writes his first blog for ehfCL.com. He reveals how difficult it was to don the jersey of the fiercest rivals of his childhood club or whether he prefers Catalan or Hungarian cuisine.

Never think you are good enough

Let me greet everybody who shares my passion for the most beautiful game in the world! This is my first blogpost at ehfCL.com, I hope you'll enjoy it.

As you may have read it in my good friend, Tom Ó Brannagáin's interview I was raised in Szeged, but now I play for my hometown's arch rival, MKB-MVM Veszprém. It wasn't an easy decision for me to sign here, and I totally accepted (and expected) the reaction from Pick's supporters the first time I took the pitch as a Veszprém player – though some may have gone beyond a certain line.

But I feel comfortable at MKB-MVM, I enjoy our success and feel that there's still room for improvement, which we already partly accomplished by signing two excellent players, Carlos Ruesga and Momir Ilic.

En route: Szeged-Barcelona-Veszprém

Though I like Veszprém, especially in the summer, I don't live there. When we moved back from Barcelona with my wife and daughter, our priority was to find a good school for Deborah, and that happened to be in Budapest, where she can learn in a bilingual school.

She is six, and before you ask, I tell you I don't know if she's ever going to become a handball player but seems more interested in tennis. Naturally I won't push her towards something she doesn't really want.

However, I spend a lot of time in Veszprém, which is like an hour drive from Budapest so the commute doesn't take much out of me. It's a nice town at equal distance from the hills of Bakony and Lake Balatan. There are plenty of restaurants and caffés, where we can hang out with my team mates.

I love eating out, and when friends ask me whether I prefer Hungarian or Catalan cuisine, I always have the same strange answer: when I played for Barcelona, I missed the Hungarian, but now that I am at home, I deeply miss the Catalan cuisine.

I am pretty much a carnivore, but Szeged is famous for a fishsoup specialty, which used to be my favourite, but I can never say no to a nice plate of goose liver either. I am not picky and always ready to try something new.

Most profitable match was a loss at Szeged

Last year was very difficult for us because we had a new coach, a lot of new players – including myself – and started the preparation late due to the Olympics. On top of that we were drawn to the group of death in the Champions League.

This summer we had time to prepare properly, and with our new players and the confidence gained from last year I am sure we can accomplish anything. The burden of goal-scoring is shared among some of the best talents of the game so with a bit of luck we can achieve our goals this season.

Last year was emotional, which culminated in our excellent away game at Kiel in the quarter-finals, but when people ask me about the best matches, I always tell them the most profitable was our seven-goal-loss at Szeged in the Hungarian championship.

That week we beat both finalists of the previous Champions League campaign and were in the clouds when Szeged dragged us back with a horrendous beating. This taught us a lesson: never ever think you are good enough.

When people tell me I am the best right back in the game I usually tell them to go and see Kim Andersson, who in my opinion is pure genius. I also admire the shooting repertoire of Kiro Lazarov, but let me draw your attention to an upcoming talent with a familiar name: Alex Dujshebaev is a real chip off the old block.

Thanks for joining me, I hope you enjoyed my first post here. Stay tuned, I'll come back with more

Cheers,

László

TEXT: László Nagy, MKB-MVM Veszprém right back