Dynamo Kyiv legend: “I’m ashamed to be Hungarian!”
FC Dynamo Kyiv legend József Szabó would take up a machine gun and fight the Russians if his health allowed it. He has expressed utter disappointment and says he is ashamed to be Hungarian.
The football legend mourns the victims
Every night, József Szabó mourns the Ukrainians who have fallen that day and dreams of driving the enemy out of the country in the morning. Szabó was a Hungarian citizen at birth, became a Soviet citizen after WWII, and a Ukrainian citizen in 1991. He played for Russian and Ukrainian football clubs as well. He was Ukraine’s national team captain and Dynamo Kyiv’s manager.
“I am ashamed to be a Hungarian”
According to Blikk.hu, he has been repeatedly denigrated and called a fascist by the Soviet press for his Hungarian identity, and he now believes the Russian army is surpassing the atrocities of the German SS. The man was upset by Blikk.hu’s contact and refused to give an interview to the Hungarian newspaper. When he picked up the phone, he said the following:
“Sorry, but I don’t want to talk to Hungarian newspapers. I am ashamed to be Hungarian. The main problem is not that Hungary is not helping Ukraine in the war, although I don’t understand why it doesn’t at least let the weapons sent from the West through the country. What hurts more and annoys me is that Viktor Orbán’s tongue is constantly up the arse of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, who started the war.”
After he said all this, he hung up.
A successful player and coach, he recently underwent knee surgery, and immediately after the war broke out, he was willing to give an interview to Magyar Nemzet, but unfortunately, this was not the case with Blikk.
Kárpáti Igaz Szó
According to Blikk.hu, Szabó told the Carpathian True Word (Kárpáti Igaz Szó, a newspaper of the Hungarian community in Ukraine) about his life a few days ago. In the days before the Russian attack on Ukraine, he was admitted to a hospital in Kyiv for surgery. After the first air raid, he was taken to the basement of the institution.
He was returned home at the end of March. His relatives asked him to leave Kyiv, but he refused to leave his apartment, even though he has a house in Transcarpathia (Kárpátalja), and his friends invited him to Hungary.
His son George Sabo came home from America and went to the front to fight. Szabó said he is worried about his son, but he agrees with his decision and supports him.
According to his friend
As we can read in the article of Blikk.hu, István Medvigy, a former member of the Transcarpathian Football Association, told Blikk that he spoke to his friend on the phone.
“Day after day, he walks around the besieged city, trying to help those who are in a more difficult situation than himself. He has struggled to cope with the tragedy of children murdered in the war, hated the Russians, and even deleted the numbers of his former Russian sports teammates from his phone book,”
said Medvigy.
Source: Blikk.hu, 444.hu