European Football Championships on channels 14.6.–14.7. Go to the competition website from this link.
This man clearly has the ingredients of a cult player, so to speak.
It quickly became clear when Hungary Martin Adam came on in the 79th minute against Switzerland on Saturday. At that point, Switzerland led 2–1 and eventually took the three points with a 3–1 win.
Social media was filled with memes and amazement. Some reported that they found their new favorite player. Adam was mocked in many messages, pictures or videos.
The reason Adam attracted attention was the quality of the messages regardless of his appearance.
Nickname is “Hungarian Viking”, like ESPN writes. He was also compared to the movie Viking on social media.
News headlines followed. They boiled down to the following: Adam was a victim of body-shaming. It means the act of subjecting someone to humiliation or criticism because of their physical features.
Of course, it goes without saying that no one should have any right to criticize another person’s appearance or physical features – not even if it’s an elite athlete.
“Attack Carriage”
It’s also a fact that Adam doesn’t look like what footballers stereotypically look like.
Football players are also performing artists whose hairstyles and the like have been copied for ages. Adam’s bushy, reddish beard also caught my eye.
29-year-old Martin Adam is 191 centimeters tall and weighs 86 kilograms. He has not acquired his appearance for the European Championships, but has been the same before. Now he just got on the field for the first time in front of such a massive international audience.
Adam’s name came up even before the games in ‘s 11 friends podcast, which comprehensively predicted the prospects of all the competing countries.
Commentator Matti Härkönen stated that Adam inevitably comes to mind as a 4th divar player. He described Adam as an “assault wagon”.
– But he looks exactly the kind that could be damn annoying to play against.
Expert To Erkka V. Lehtola came to mind Hulk Hogan and show wrestling.
In his home country, Adam represented Vasas FC for a long time (2012–19) and also played in Kaposvar (2019–20) and Paks (2020–22). In Paks, Adam won the goal exchange of the Hungarian league in the 2021-22 season with 31 hits.
After that, Adam moved to the Korean League in the colors of Ulsan HD. In his entire club team career, Adam has scored 108 goals in 332 matches.
– Maybe there in Korea, paint manufacturing has waned a bit. I still think that the Hungarian league is an okay level series in Europe. If you score 31 goals in a series like this, something must be done well, Härkönen reminded.
“I was born this way”
Hungarian journalist Borbola Bence told in Dortmund For Helsingin Sanomatthat Adam is popular in his home country because he is honest and knows that he will not be the best player, but is still able to help his national team.
In Hungary, Adam’s appearance is no longer a topic of conversation, but now he became an eye-catcher in the big arenas.
– It was a small surprise for me. I know him for a long time, and he has been in the national team for some years. This is not his first time in the national team, but it seems that the fans are focusing on him now, Bence wondered to HS.
According to Bence, Adam is definitely not overweight, but he is strong and good at protecting the ball.
The kind of material about Adam that started circulating on social media did not surprise him.
– Of course I’ve seen some of them (messages, memes), but usually I just laugh at them, Adam said at the press conference after the Switzerland match.
– I was born this way, I have this body shape. I’m not saying I was born this big, but I have a certain basic physique and genetics – I can’t change that. Yes, that’s all I can say about it.
Adam can also laugh at himself. AP news agency reporter Balint Domotor shared a video interview with Adam on X. Adam is asked what he did during the last European Championships. “Of course I was drinking at home,” Adam replies.
At the same time, Adam would like to be able to focus on talking about football, his own skills and Hungary’s EC chances. He said he was grateful for every minute in the national team.
For example beIN Sports writesthat he bravely faced the mocking comments he received at the European Championship press conference.
However, according to the sports media, Adam seemed a little anxious and tired, because he knew what topic he had to talk about.
Hungary needs an attack wagon like Adam. The number one striker is Ferencvaros Barnabas Vargabut the team no longer has Adam Szalaiwho scored 86 goals in the national team and ended his career last summer at the age of 35.
Adam will not debut in the national team until 2022 after playing his amazing season in the Hungarian league. Before that, he had not scored ten goals in any season.
Most often he has been used in the national team as a substitute to bring main game threat and power to the opponent’s penalty area.
In the EC qualifiers, Adam scored two goals in eight matches.
Comparison with the legendary goalkeeper
And now everyone is talking about this big, tattooed, bearded Hungarian, at least tearing up Germany’s Sky Sportswho titled his story: “Hype about a Hungarian cult figure”.
There are many ways to become a cult player, and the term is difficult to define. Usually, a cult player gathers headlines, fandom or irritation with other things than just his gaming skills.
Cult players have come from Hungary before. Erkka V. Lehtola and many social media commentators immediately equated Adam with a “fart workman” i.e. To Gabor Kiraly.
Kiraly always played in gray, long sweatpants. In the summer of 2016, Kiraly became the oldest player in European Championship history when he saved Hungary with a goal at the age of 40 years and 74 days.
Portuguese topper Pepe broke the record on Tuesday against the Czech Republic.
Kiraly played a great career in England and Germany. He also qualified for the Champions League with Hertha Berlin.
The trousers were based on superstition, Kiraly has admitted. At first he wore long pants because the courts in Hungary were not in very good condition.
Once the custodian of his team forgot to wash the black pants, so Kiraly pulled on the gray ones. That was the start of the team’s eight-match winning streak – and Kiraly didn’t change colors again.
Let’s see if the new cult player will make it to the ring when Germany and Hungary meet on Wednesday at 19:00 in the second round match of Group A.
European Football Championships on channels 14.6.–14.7. Go to the competition website from this link.