Callum Styles’ unlikely path to Euro 2024 with Hungary… via Barnsley

Callum Styles sat down for a routine pre-match interview with Barnsley’s internal media team a few years ago and decided he would bring something into the conversation.

In the football reporter’s lexicon, it was a come-and-get-me plea.

But this one, in October 2020, was different. Rather than bat an eye at suitors in the transfer market, Styles, a promising young England midfielder, wanted to make it known that he was eligible to play international football for Hungary or Ukraine – ‘just by putting it out there’ , he remembers. The Athletics“and hope that something comes out of it.”

Nothing happened for weeks. “And then… you know how everything spreads through social media these days?” he says. “That’s basically how it was. It caught fire.”

The story was picked up by a sports website in Budapest. The Hungarian Football Association contacted Barnsley and was put in touch with Styles’ agent, who verified the story and provided more details about the player’s origins. Hungary began keeping an eye on him – at first from a distance, due to Covid-19 travel restrictions – and then, impressed, began exploring further.

Styles envisioned that the first step would be a call for Hungary’s under-21s. But once the various administrative hurdles had been overcome, he was included straight into the first team and made his international debut against Serbia in Budapest in March 2022. Three months later, he was part of a Hungarian team that defeated England 4-0 in the Nations League. League — “a unique moment where you have to pinch yourself afterwards and say: ‘Wow, did that really happen?’.”

He is now 24 and spent last season on loan at Sunderland. He played 22 international matches for Hungary. According to him, everything went very well. He is determined to start Saturday’s opening match against Switzerland in Cologne after overcoming an injury scare in their final warm-up against Israel (a 3-0 win) last Saturday.

He likes playing for Hungary. He can’t wait for the euro. But he’s not going to pretend he grew up eating goulash and listening to stories about Ferenc Puskas while the rhapsodies of Franz Liszt played in the background.

On the contrary, he grew up without any sense of ties to the country he now proudly represents.

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Growing up in Middleton, Greater Manchester, Styles was aware that his mother’s parents, Jan and Magdolna, were originally from somewhere in Eastern Europe. But he didn’t know where.

“I didn’t really watch that as a kid,” he says. “I was just playing and enjoying life. You’re playing with your toys or you’re out with your friends. None of those conversations happened until later.

“I used to always visit my grandmother, because she lived around the corner from my father and mother. I would visit twice a week and she would always cook a chicken noodle soup. But she died when I was just finishing primary school.”

He was a professional footballer in his late teens and made a strong impression in the Barnsley first team, by the time he began to discover more about how Jan and Magdolna had moved to Britain from Ukraine and Hungary in their early twenties respectively. Details about Jan’s past in Ukraine were vague – “we couldn’t find his old passport” – but more was known about Magdolna.

Styles and his girlfriend wanted to visit Hungary during the international break in March 2020. But that plan was thwarted by the pandemic. By the time he finally reached Budapest two years later, his first time on Hungarian soil, it was to join the national team.

It was intimidating at first, especially since he couldn’t speak a word of Hungarian (something he has since started correcting on Duolingo). But his new teammates welcomed him from the start. They didn’t expect him to know the national anthem — he can sing it now — but were impressed when he performed 50 Cent’s Candy Shop at a dedication ceremony.

He was not the only player in the team who had qualified through dual nationality; Hertha Berlin winger Palko Dardai was born in Germany, the son of former Hungarian international Pal Dardai, who played and coached for Hertha); RB Leipzig defender Willi Orban was born in Germany, but had a Hungarian father; Le Havre full-back Loic Nego played for his native France from under-16s to under-20s, but became a Hungarian citizen after playing there for more than five years; and Bournemouth full-back Milos Kerkez was born in Serbia but, like Styles, had a Hungarian grandmother.

“And our manager (Marco Rossi) is Italian,” says Styles. “He told me about the reception he received even though he was not Hungarian or had Hungarian roots. And many of the meetings are in English, which has helped me enormously. The guys talk to me and they are very welcoming.

“But going to the country for the first time was a wonderful experience. My debut made it even better. Getting used to it was a lot easier than I thought. I immediately felt at home.”

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For much of the recent past, a player who discovered he was eligible to play for Hungary would still have had little or no chance of playing in a major tournament.

Hungary was one of the giants of world football in the ‘Magical Magyars’ period of the 1950s and 1960s. Hungary’s appearance at the 1986 World Cup was their last appearance in a major tournament for three decades.

But this will be their third consecutive European Championship. Qualification has been made easier by the expansion of the competition to 24 teams, but Hungary’s performance improvement is undeniable. They won their qualifying group without losing a match. In total they had gone fourteen matches without defeat until they were defeated 2–1 by the Republic of Ireland in their penultimate warm-up match.

When UEFA launched its Nations League competition in 2018, Hungary was in the third tier, including Estonia and Lithuania. In the most recent campaign they finished second in a first-tier group, winning away against Germany (1-0) and beating England at home (1-0) and away (4-0). Qualification for the European Championship was secured with an equalizer in injury time in Bulgaria. They flew back to Budapest, went into the city center and partied the night away, players and supporters alike. “Crazy,” Styles recalled.

“We have done so well as a team, we have improved game after game, year after year,” he said. “When we beat England it was a bit ‘Wow’. The manager (Rossi) has changed a lot. A lot of progress has been made since he started. I feel like we’re a good team.”

The star of the team is Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai. “He’s a world-class player, a leader,” Styles said. ‘He’s quite cold in camp. But on the pitch he brings that extra percentage, that X-factor that you sometimes need when the game is a bit boring and you need someone to create some magic and force a 1-0 win or whatever.

“But we are a team. We won’t get carried away, but we have to be calmly confident because we have shown that we can compete against the top teams. Obviously, with the pressure of the European Championship, these games could go either way, but we have a very good team. Hopefully we can make progress.”

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Styles is in the shop window in Germany and is looking to build on a positive loan spell at Sunderland by securing a permanent move from Barnsley – who lost to Bolton Wanderers in the semi-final of the League One play-offs – this summer.

He enjoyed his time at Sunderland but is unsure of their plans as they are yet to appoint a new manager. If not Sunderland, he hopes to be back in the Championship with another club.

Callum Styles played for Sunderland last season but his long-term future is uncertain (George Wood/Getty Images)

But the club’s ambitions are on hold. “International football is what I am concentrating on: the European Championship and doing my best for Hungary,” he says. “The rest will take care of itself.”

His parents, his girlfriend and some friends are also traveling to Germany. Do they all learn the national anthem? “They already know,” he says. “We sang it.”

One of his aunts, who lives in Hungary, has been to some home games, but he is not sure if she will be able to come to Germany. He hopes so. Either way, Styles is looking forward to the experience – both on a deeper personal level and on a professional level.

A flag of convenience? Perhaps at first, but he has embraced his second nationality. When he puts on Hungary’s shirt, he thinks of his grandmother and wonders what she would have thought if he wore her country’s colors.

“It’s special for my mother’s side of the family to see me representing our bloodline,” he says. “It’s an honor to play for Hungary. It’s in my DNA.”