Viktor Orbán’s Reckless Football Obsession

You may not be familiar with the name "Felcsút" even if you are a soccer fan; but this town boasts one of the world’s most striking football grounds. The Hungarian town of 1,800 people, about 25 miles west of Budapest, is home to the "Pancho Arena", and happens to be the hometown of the country's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. 

Viktor Orbán is definitely a football fan. As Nolan and Goldblatt portray him through his football "interest";

Now 54, Orbán has been a public figure for more than half his life. Increasingly remote, what remains of the 26-year-old who burst into Hungary’s national consciousness during the 1989 change of regime is best viewed at Felcsút. His obsession with football is legendary: Orbán is said to watch as many as six games a day. His first trip abroad as prime minister in 1998 was to the World Cup final in Paris; according to inside sources, he has not missed a World Cup or Champions League final since.

The authors also managed to get a hold of increasingly reclusive Orbán at his Felcsút hub; and even had a personal tour of the Pancho Arena—in addition to the personal wisdom he shared through football anecdotes and analogies.

Overall, through the Felcsút connection of Orbán, we embark on an odyssey when reading this article; as if rolling the ball over the portrait of this "charismatic leader".

In the late 1980s, one of the players who regularly kicked the football as a member of the rival team against him recalls the following:

playing football was a way of releasing his aggression. One time he took the ball out of play. When everyone else stopped, Orbán said, ‘It’s not out’, and carried on, and scored. He was overwriting the laws: sort of ‘I’ll tell you when it’s in or out.

Orbán did indeed rewrite the laws in literal sense in Hungary; his party Fidesz changed the Constitution in 2013 and made various legal amendments since it came to power in 2010. But, he also rewrote the laws of politics in Hungary—and he continues to score.