Seventeen-year-old Krisztian Nemeth is deciding between offers from Dinamo Kiev and Ajax Amsterdam. His team came fifth in this year's European youth football championships, Hungarian football's best achievement in years. In the spring, he will start playing in MTK's adult team.
The young talent was trained at the Sandor Karoly Football Academy, which is where MTK Budapest sends its youngest footballers. Even talent scouts from much more successful footballing nations than Hungary are impressed by the school. Zsolt Tamasi, the director of the academy, said: "They watch our training session in astonishment, saying they'd take any number of them - but where to? They couldn't provide better training conditions anywhere else." The Academy has received visits from Fulham, Notthingham Forest, from West Bromwich Albion where Hungarian team member Zoltan Gera plays, and from Sparta Rotterdam.
They have reason to be impressed. The 44 young footballers - selected by MTK - are housed in a classically-styled castle that was renovated at a cost of HUF1bn five years ago. They are taught by four trainers and a physiotherapist. The footballers live in two-bed, air-conditioned rooms, and are visited by teachers from the Chernel Istvan Secondary School in nearby Agard. Lessons timetables are subordinated to training requirements, and skills like drawing, music and physical education are not taught. But the boys get extra foreign language tuition and computer training, since these are considered essential to a footballing career. They are taught sports law, health and nutrition and are taught how to speak to the press. The young footballers return home to their parents after their Saturday match and must return by lunchtime on Monday. In summer, their break lasts only three weeks.
The boys have access to a sauna and a jacuzzi. Changing rooms and gyms are in another building. There is a spotlit astroturf field in the park, along with two fully-sized football fields, with another astroturf field to come. Boys with injuries are treated at a specialist sports hospital, and nutrition experts devise the menu, which is prepared by a local restaurant. The trainers are also trained- the director recently attended a training programme in the Netherlands.
"Pupils are chosen according to their footballing skills - by which we mean he must also have the right personality," Tamasi says. The school ensures that it does not miss a single talent by relying on input from 10 scouts around the country, who are dispatched by MTK. The Sandor Karoly Foundation spends HUF3m on each student every year.
Board and education is free for the students - who even receive a HUF15,000 monthly stipend. The foundation and the academy belong to Gabor Varszegi. The owner of the Fotex chain no longer finances MTK Budapest, but he remains a co-owner of the club. Varszegi also finances the Foundation. No companies have yet undertaken to sponsor the Academy - Nike's annual HUF18m donation of equipment comes via MTK.
The Academy's success is shown by its results. The greatest success came when one of MTK's junior teams beat Chelsea's youth team 5-0, Fulham's 1-0, and drew 3-3 with West Ham. MTK's lead is even clearer in Hungary. The Hungarian Under 17's 18-strong squad has 14 of the Academy's students.
This year may be the first in which the Academy's graduates go abroad, and when the investment may finally pay off. The first generation of students, born in 1984, are already playing in MTK's main team, some of whom Tamasi says are ready to play in more serious foreing leagues.
MTK is more cautious with the younger students. "The club examines whether Krisztian will fit in to a foreign environment. It is important to decide what kind of club he can go to, so that we don't slow his development."
Zoltán Kelemen
