Iconic goalkeepers and RB Leipzig greats: The Bundesliga’s best Hungarians

11.11.2024

With Germany taking on Hungary in the UEFA Nations League, bundesliga.com takes a look at five top Hungarians to have graced Germany's top division...

Dominik Szoboszlai
Appearances: 62 (12 goals)
Clubs: RB Leipzig
Honours: DFB Cup (2021–22, 2022–23)

Now starring for Premier League giants Liverpool, Szoboszlai made his name in Leipzig as one of football's most entertaining long-range goalscoring specialists. Joining from sister team Red Bull Salzburg in 2021, injury meant that Die Roten Bullen fans had to wait six months before seeing their new midfielder in action, but it was worth the wait.

Szoboszlai would score on his debut in the DFB Cup and then two games later he netted a brace in his first start against Stuttgart in the league. The cup goal would prove important as it was win number one on the way to the Olympiastadion in Berlin and lifting the club's first-ever major trophy. The team and their new Hungarian midfield master would follow up with a second the following season as the screamers from range piled up.

Szoboszlai was a must-watch at Leipzig and is now leading Hungary. - IMAGO/Laci Perenyi

Away from the Bundesliga, Szoboszlai had the pressure of being the next big thing for a proud nation and two-time World Cup finalist in Hungary. However, he lived up to the hype, achieving legendary status with a qualifying goal against Iceland to send his country to Euro 2020, only their second major tournament in 48 years. Two years later he was given the armband and again led them to Euro 2024 back in Germany where he walked his team out as captain.

Pál Dárdai
Appearances: 297 (17 goals)
Club: Hertha Berlin
Honours: Bundesliga 2 (2010/11), DFB Ligapokal (2001, 2002), Intertoto Cup (2006)

Szoboszlai may be flying the flag as one of Hungary's most exciting young talents around, yet long before the attacking midfielder made his way to the German top flight, another Hungarian would show his compatriots the way after his move to Hertha back in 1997. Indeed, Pál Dárdai would go on to become the Old Lady's highest appearance holder during 15 seasons with the capital club that preceded a couple of coaching stints with the men in blue and white.

A defensive midfielder of some repute, Dárdai made the first of his 297 appearances for Hertha in the second division after a winter transfer move. Die Alte Dame won promotion to the top tier that same season with the Pecs native later making 14 Bundesliga appearances in his team's 1997/98 campaign. The following season, Dárdai would go on to play a bigger role as Hertha finished in an incredible third position in the Bundesliga standings. It was an achievement that brought a 1999 Hungarian Player of the Year award for the one time Budapesti VSC man.

Dárdai is simply a Hertha icon. - Alexander Hassenstein - Getty

Establishing himself in the heart of the Hertha team over the following years, Dárdai also became a regular senior international for Hungary - eventually winning 61 caps and captaining his country on several occasions - while he surpassed Michael Sziedat as Hertha's highest Bundesliga appearance holder when landing at 281 top-flight games in 2010. The midfielder hung up his boots at 35 having featured in 297 league encounters in Germany but his involvement with Hertha would remain strong, with Dárdai moving into the coaching world.

Beginning life as a tactician with the Berlin club's youth teams, the 46-year-old subsequently answered his country's call to take up the reins of the senior national team on an interim basis. He would also later accept another interim stint, this time as Hertha's senior coach in 2015, a role he would then make permanent until the end of the 2018/19 campaign. Dárdai once again answered the Hertha coaching call with a 10-month spell at the helm beginning in January 2021.

Gábor Király
Appearances: 198 (72 clean sheets)
Clubs: Hertha Berlin, Bayer Leverkusen, 1860 Munich
Honours: DFB Ligapokal (2001, 2002)

The goalkeeper famed for opting to wear distinctive grey tracksuit bottoms as opposed to shorts, Király remains Hungary's most capped player (108) and was a revelation at Hertha, where he played alongside compatriot Dárdai. During Hertha's run to a third-place finish in 1998/99, the custodian conceded the fewest goals during the campaign.

In the following season, Király - born and raised in Szombathely, Hungary's tenth-largest city - made ten UEFA Champions League appearances as the Berliners reached the competition's second group stage, the Old Lady having finished above Galatasaray and AC Milan in the opening section.

Watch: Gabor Kiraly - Hertha's goalkeeper in the grey joggers

Király racked up almost 200 Bundesliga appearances for Hertha and, although he had a short spell on loan at Leverkusen as back-up to Rene Adler in 2008/09, the Hungarian shot-stopper failed to make a single German top-flight appearance for the Werkself. Along with several stints at various English clubs, Király featured in 168 Bundesliga 2 games with 1860 Munich. At Euro 2016, the 'keeper surpassed Lothar Matthäus to become the oldest player to ever appear at the tournament at 40 years and 74 days. He brought a 25-year playing career to a close in 2019.

Péter Gulácsi
Appearances: 226 (80 clean sheets)
Club: RB Leipzig
Honours: DFB Cup (2021/22, 2022/23)

Leipzig's 2022 DFB Cup winning captain joined the Saxony-based side when they were plying their trade in Germany's second division back in 2015. His Bundesliga debut followed later, in a 2-2 draw at Hoffenheim in August 2016, and the goalkeeper has gone on to play 226 times in Germany's top flight.

Starting out at local side MTK Budapest, Gulácsi moved to Liverpool before making a succession of loan moves within England's lower divisions. He opted to settle in Austria at Red Bull Salzburg in 2013, featuring in 65 games over the next two years prior to moving to that team's sister club in Germany.

Watch: The best of Péter Gulácsi

Gulácsi was part of the Leipzig team that finished their maiden Bundesliga campaign in second place, while his saves helped the team from Germany's former East reach a DFB Cup final in 2019, which they lost to Bayern. The 'keeper and his Leipzig teammates would make amends for that loss - and the 2021 final reverse against Borussia Dortmund - when they saw off the challenge of Freiburg to lift the DFB Cup for the first time following a penalty shootout win in Berlin in May. Gulácsi made his senior international debut for Hungary against Denmark in May 2014 while prior to that, was a key member of the side that collected bronze at the 2009 FIFA U20 World Cup.

Willi Orbán
Appearances: 211 (24 goals)
Club: RB Leipzig
Honours: DFB Cup (2021/22, 2022/23)

Born in Kaiserslautern, Orbán is the son of a Hungarian father and has amassed 33 caps for Hungary to date. Joining the Lautern youth academy at just four years old, the defender made his first-team debut with The Red Devils as a substitute in a 3-0 Bundesliga loss against Bayern in August 2011.

Having been tried out on the right side of defence and in defensive midfield, Orbán began to shine at centre back in 2013/14, with Kaiserslautern playing in Bundesliga 2. He went on to captain the side as he featured in 68 league games and was even named Die roten Teufel's Player of the Season for 2014/15.

Moving to Leipzig in 2015, Orbán immediately settled into the starting XI and enjoyed promotion to the Bundesliga with an exciting young side. A superb second-place finish in Germany's top division was followed by UEFA Champions League football, Orbán even captaining the team on occasion, a task he would become more than used to as the seasons followed.

Watch: The best of Willi Orbán

To date, Orbánhas featured in 10 seasons in Leipzig colours, scoring 30 goals in 324 games across all competitions. He has reached four DFB Cup finals with Die Roten Bullen and won two of them, and he was also part of former Leipzig coach Nagelsmann's side that advanced to the Champions League semi-finals in 2019/20, later being named club captain in 2023.

His debut for Hungary came in a Nations League encounter against Greece on 12 October 2018 and he has gone on to score six goals in those 52 senior international appearances for his country.