The former team captain of the Hungarian national football team announced his retirement, who reported this to the press on Monday.
"I am very proud of my career, I started in the Bundesliga and I wanted to finish there as a professional, i.e. at the highest level. I played in four different teams, including two in the Champions League. At the moment, I am the most successful Hungarian goalscorer in the German top flight," concluded the 35-year-old striker, who finally moved to Basel in February 2022 after the Bundesliga, and the Swiss team was his last club. The attacker played in 276 matches in the German top flight and scored 54 goals.
Szalai explained that he initially planned to finish last summer, which became this summer. He called his decision thoughtful and deliberate.
"Those stadiums, the full houses in the Bundesliga. It's difficult to highlight anything from these experiences, so I don't want anything positive or negative," said Ádám Szalai, who wants to continue playing football.
"I would like to use the kind of knowledge and experience I gained in Germany at home. I want to take on something that I can identify with one hundred percent, i.e. not jump into something right away," he said.
Szalai revealed that leaving his country for such a long time involved many sacrifices and homesickness, so he imagines his future here.
"Football has much more difficult problems in life, but the competitive situation and constant adaptation taught me to handle things better in other areas of life as well. I can thank football for that," said Szalai, who arrived with his partner and child for his announcement at the training center. He revealed that no one knew about his decision, because he learned from his mistake when it leaked last fall that he was canceling the national team.
Ádám Szalai joined Mainz in 2010 and then played for Schalke 04, Hoffenheim and Hannover before returning to Mainz. His last club was Basel in Switzerland. He played 86 times for the Hungarian national team and scored 26 goals.
MTI
