After the fantastic ride wearing the shirt of Parmaconcluded with the return to Serie A, for Botond Balogh now it’s time to think about Euro2024 with his shirt Hungary. Through, however, the microphones of Nemzeti Sports the defender of the ducals was able to retrace his journey in our country: “From the first moment I had a very positive impression of the Italian cities, of the Italians, because they welcomed us very well, they didn’t look down on us at all, or they didn’t look at us as foreigners, but everyone was helpful. I also immediately liked Italian cuisine, when I was still in Hungary I already liked going to Italian restaurants, but now I can’t exaggerate.”
The first months of settling in, getting used to Italian football: “I felt that the Hungarian players were better individually, but the mentality of how they trained here in every training session was the biggest difference, and I think that’s where I improved a lot more. From a tactical point of view I learned a lot from the beginning, because in Hungary we didn’t pay attention to this aspect.”
On his first kicks and the Juventus dream: “When I was little and started playing football, I told everyone that one day I would play football for Juventus. I was already in the squad when we faced Juventus, it was already an experience very surreal, so I’m confident I can play against them next year.”
The many muscle injuries in the first season in Serie B and the new diet: “At the beginning of that season I tore my thigh muscle, which forced me to miss a month and a half or two. When I returned, it passed a month and I tore the thigh muscle in the other leg, staying out almost two and a half months. Then I came back again, started training, but again I had a thigh muscle problem. It was not a normal situation , I knew I was training, eating and resting like a pro, so we did a lot of research and did a food intolerance test, since then I have been following a specific diet where certain foods are excluded.”