With transfer rumors in past, Gazdag happy with Union
CHESTER, PA. >> Daniel Gazdag heard the links the same as everyone else. But unlike the online marketplace for rumors and scuttlebutt, the euphemistic code of interest and offers held no meaning for the Union midfielder.
“I also heard about some rumors, but my agent didn’t call me and say we had to move,” Gazdag said Thursday. “I’m just focusing on my preseason with the Union and I think it’s going well.”
Gazdag has done plenty to warrant the interest. He’s scored 40 goals and 26 assists in two and a half seasons with the Union. Last year brought 22 goals and 11 assists in all competitions. A month shy of his 28th birthday, he’s in the prime of a career in which he’s solidified a place in Hungary’s national team.
So the notion that teams in Europe would come calling wasn’t a shock. But a move didn’t hold much sway for Gazdag, who is not only happy in Philadelphia but in position for a major career milestone.
If all goes according to plan in 2024, Gazdag will get to play at the European Championships. It would be a career-defining accolade, to be part of a revitalization of Hungarian soccer after decades in the European wilderness.
“Obviously it’s a big one,” said Gazdag, who has earned 23 caps and scored four international goals. “When I was a kid, Hungary didn’t really qualify for this kind of stuff, so it’s, I can say, a new thing for the whole country. I can feel the excitement in Hungary. It’s a big goal and also in my career, it would be a big achievement if I can play there.”
Hungary was once a global power, the runnerup at the 1938 and 1954 World Cups. Those pre-revolution teams played what was billed the Match of the Century in 1953, the Golden Team or Magical Magyars entrancing generations with their transcendent skill. (The global award for goal of the year still bears the name of one, Ferenc Puskas.)
But Hungary hasn’t qualified for a World Cup since 1986 and hasn’t emerged from the group of a global tournament since 1966. Euros is a steppingstone to end that drought when the World Cup field expands in 2026. Hungary has made the last two Euros, reaching the Round of 16 in 2016 and losing in the group stage in the 2021 tournament.
Gazdag was slated to be part of that last squad, but a minor if untimely knee injury kept him out, after traveling to Hungary for a pretournament camp. It was part of a fervid 14 months in which Gazdag played nearly 60 games in one elongated, uninterrupted season from the fall 2020 resumption of the COVID-shortened 201920 season with Hungarian club Honved to the end of 2021 with the Union.
His production early on with the Union was tepid. But his MVP-caliber last two campaigns — 22 goals and 10 assists in 2022, then last year’s 25 goal contributions — showed how much of the dip was caused by overwork.
The prospect of changing clubs before a major tournament wasn’t something Gazdag necessarily aimed to avoid. It was more that he and his family are happy and settled in Philadelphia, with no reason to compromise to make a European move happen.
“I’m happy here,” he said. “My family is happy here. We’re not thinking about this kind of stuff.”