The bearded joke is well-known among soccer lovers, according to which József Ferenc is investigating the cause of the loud noise coming from the Prater in the Vienna Burg. They tell him that there is nothing special: there is a football match between Austria and Hungary. I understand - I understand, says the ruler, but who is the opponent?
Inevitably, this is what came to my mind after the only Hungarian victory in this year's soccer EC, when I learned that the once clean, now shrinking Hungarian-speaking community belonging to Serbia prayed aloud in the last minutes of the match against the Scots. In the fan zone set up in the courtyard of the country house, after the injury of Barnabás Varga, the supplicant first rose to the sky, and then in the last moments they asked for the help of the Almighty to score the winning Hungarian goal. The Hungarians of the former barn, trapped among the Serbs, did not even know that the author of our national team's only goal up to that point came from the most loyal village in Hungary to the European football stage. From the village that was separated from Hungary after Trianon in the same way as they did with the settlements in Bácska, including Temerin. Only as long as no one asked the Hungarians annexed to the artificially hammered South Slavic state in which country they wanted to know their homeland inherited from their ancestors, among the settlements occupied by the Austrians - the citizens of the ten villages, mostly inhabited by Croats and Germans, were able to ask the border establishment committee can state which country they want to belong to.
The people of Barnabás Varga's home village - in 1923, mostly inhabited by Croats - chose Hungary. In addition to Szentpéterfa, five other villages were inhabited by Croats, three by Germans and only one was purely Hungarian. They could keep their lands and cultivate and visit their vineyards and cellars on the Austrian side. But a quarter of a century later, communist Hungary trapped the most loyal villagers between the 1922 border and the hastily erected Iron Curtain, who were only released from their fenced prison when the regime changed.
Even in the spring - when our EC chances looked brighter than in the first days of June - that is, in the spring, the FTC played in the NB I stadium closest to St. Petersburg. Everyone could see on television that the people of St. Petersburg, filling an entire sector, did not wave the fan scarves of one of the teams, but showed the name of their village and chanted the name of their countryman. And Barni - as they call our top scorer - warmed up in front of them, took photos with them, and contributed to the success of his team there, as in Germany.
Victory! – roared the Scots-Hungarian in his penultimate moment, along with the fans in the stadium, Szentpéterfa in Vas county, Temerin in Vojvodina and the entire Carpathian basin, regardless of nationality.
After this, is anyone still interested in which country's soccer team won the European Football Championship in 2024?
Author: Attila Miklós Németh
Cover photo: Barnabás Varga's home village is burning with football fever (Photo: Attila Török/nemzetisport.hu)
