Hungary Replace Varhidi With … Varhidi
By: Martha | January 23rd, 2008
Peter Varhidi, whose career record in 12 months in charge of the Hungarian national team was 7-7, saw his contract run out at the end of last month, and Istvan Kisteleki, the president of the Hungarian FA (AKA the MLSZ), told the national media that the team’s next coach would be a foreigner. After a lengthy meeting today, the MLSK announced through Kisteleki they had settled on a new coach: Peter Varhidi. Arighty then.
According to Kisteleki, Varhidi — who has not, by the way, experienced a change of citizenship in the past three weeks — was the only candidate the MLSZ considered, despite his inability to lead Hungary to qualification for Euro 2008. The team fell to as low as 65th in FIFA’s world ranking under Varhidi’s stewardship, but after a 3-1 thrashing of Italy in an August friendly, things quickly started to improve, and the team are now 50th in the world. That’s a long way from the glory days of the 1950s, obviously, but it remains a whole lot better than how things were a few years ago.
Kisteleki insists the MLSZ will be bringing in a foreigner as development director, presumably with an eye to a broader perspective, but Hungary’s qualification for World Cup 2010 is firmly in Varhidi’s hands, and it’s not going to be easy: Hungary are in Europe’s Group 1, along with Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Malta — a qualifying loss to whom precipitated the departure of Varhidi’s predecessor — and Albania.
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