Chicken noodle soup is not a traditional north Manchester dish but Callum Styles never thought of its significance when he was at his grandmother’s house as a child. Magdolena would often be on hand to feed Styles after school and her background was almost a mystery back then, but her journey from Hungary to England has created a new chapter in the family history.
Styles has gone from Burnley, via Bury and Barnsley, to Budapest in his short football career. This summer could involve a stop in Berlin. After finding out he was eligible to play for Hungary he explained this in the Oakwell Review match programme. It might even have been a throwaway line to offer up a fun fact about the lad from Middleton but it was picked up on in Hungary. Two years and 21 caps later he is part of the squad heading to the European Championship.
“Word gets around football quickly, somehow it reached Hungary, so they got in touch with the club and my agent,” Styles says. “Weeks later I am getting a phone call from the manager, telling me that as soon as my passport was ready he wanted me in the next camp. I asked: ‘To watch?’ And he said: ‘No, to play, obviously.’ It was a wow moment. If there is a Barnsley programme subscriber in Budapest, thank you.”
Hungary are in Group A alongside the hosts, Germany, as well as Switzerland and Scotland. Three years ago, at Euro 2020, Hungary finished bottom of their group with two points after coming up against Germany, France and Portugal, but they are optimistic. The head coach, Marco Rossi, is six years into his tenure and the captain, Dominik Szoboszlai, has led his country through an unbeaten qualifying campaign. Their most recent competitive defeat was in September 2022.
“I always dreamt of it as a kid because that’s where you want to be playing and now it is a reality,” Styles says. “It is a dream come true. He [Szoboszlai] is doing really well, we have done really well under him as captain. We went 14 games unbeaten, so for him to lead us into a big competition like the Euros gives us massive confidence. If he is leading us, then the tournament is our playground and we just need to keep doing what we are doing. We will have a really good go at it.”
At the end of Euro 2020, Styles was upset to see England lose on penalties in the final. Since then he has beaten them twice in Nations League matches. Hungary also defeated Germany 1-0 on home soil less than two years ago and they fear no one. Rossi first made the team difficult to beat and he has added more attacking thrust since the last European Championship as they aim to be dark horses.
Styles says of defeating the nation of his birth: “It was bittersweet because I represent both countries. They are both my countries, because I have grown up in England with Hungarian roots. It was a pinch-me moment after the games. In the buildup you are focused on the match and do not take the whole situation in until after it is done. Then it is like: ‘Wow, I have beaten England twice,’ and, on paper, they are one of the best teams in Europe, if not the world.”
Hungary have a tight-knit squad. Styles is a part of a poker group along with Szoboszlai and others. Styles’s parents, girlfriend and a group of his friends will travel to Germany to back him. Qualification in November was celebrated with a trip to the nightclub along with fans, helping Styles to learn that football culture in the country is slightly different to that at Oakwell.
“I only see the international level but the fans are some of the best I have seen – they are amazing. There is a stand with the ultras where they do not stop at all, before, during and after the game. We have a really good connection with them – we go over and we sing the national anthem with them after every game. There is so much passion for the game and national team. We just have to give back to them on the pitch and we have been doing that in recent times.”
Apart from his grandmother’s cooking, Styles had little knowledge of his heritage. When he joined up for the first time, he had never visited Hungary. “I am using Duolingo, I am trying my best,” he says of trying to learn Hungarian. “It is not an easy language, let’s put it that way. It is difficult when you go over there but I am picking up quite a lot in camp but when that finishes I am back to England and everyone speaks English. It is easy to forget what you have learned because no one is speaking Hungarian around you.”
Styles, who was released by Burnley as a teenager, spent the second half of the season on loan at Sunderland and is likely to return to the second tier this summer. There is interest in the midfielder from a number of Championship clubs and staying at Barnsley seems highly unlikely, although his club future is at the back of his mind.
“I would love to go as far as I can with Hungary and hopefully make the later rounds by getting through the group – that’s the first goal – and take it game by game after that and see how far we can get,” Styles says. “We have got the players, we have got the coach, we’ve got the philosophy to go far. We just have to be confident, work hard.”
