“It was very tough” – Dominik Szoboszlai reflects on moment from 2025 | OneFootball

Szoboszlai, Hungary and the Weight of a World Cup Dream

Dominik Szoboszlai is 25 years old, a stage in a footballer’s life when time still feels abundant but the game has already taught its sharpest lessons. He has medals, status and responsibility. He has carried the armband for his country and the expectations of a generation. And yet, when he reflects on the past year, one absence overshadows everything else: the World Cup.

Hungary’s failure to qualify for the tournament in North America cut deeply, not because of what was lost in the abstract, but because of how close it was. A single draw would have been enough. A single moment managed differently might have changed everything. Instead, there was silence, shock and a sense of personal debt that Szoboszlai has not tried to hide.

Speaking in the aftermath, in comments originally reported by Empire of the Kop, the midfielder described the defeat as the saddest moment of his career. Not anger, not frustration, but something heavier and quieter. Sadness tends to linger longer.

Hungary’s World Cup heartbreak

International football has a habit of being brutally concise. Years of planning can unravel in seconds. Hungary’s campaign ended in that familiar way, with a late defeat that felt less like a loss of a match and more like a loss of a future that had already been imagined.

For Szoboszlai, this was not simply another setback. He has already known the pain of missing a major tournament through injury earlier in his career. He had made amends at the European Championship in Germany, but the World Cup carries a different gravity. It is the stage that defines careers, particularly for players from nations who cannot assume regular qualification.

Hungary are not tourists in international football anymore. Under Szoboszlai’s leadership, they have become organised, resilient and ambitious. That is precisely why this failure cut so sharply. Expectations had been raised, and belief had followed. When that belief collapsed, the emotional fallout was inevitable.

Responsibility of a captain

Szoboszlai speaks like a player who feels ownership over the outcome. Captains often say this, but in his case it appears to be lived rather than performed. He has talked openly about owing Hungary a World Cup, a phrase that reveals both confidence and burden.

This sense of responsibility is not performative nationalism. It is rooted in how modern elite players experience international football. Club careers provide weekly rhythm and regular chances at redemption. International football offers no such luxury. Miss one cycle and you may wait four years to try again.

At 25, Szoboszlai knows he is likely to have at least one, possibly two, more attempts. But nothing is guaranteed. Form changes, injuries happen, qualifying paths shift. The certainty of future chances is always an illusion.

Club form amid international pain

What is striking is how little this disappointment has affected his club performances. If anything, Szoboszlai has looked like a player trying to impose order on chaos, becoming one of the most consistent figures in a difficult season.

There is a paradox here. Club football offers escape, structure and repetition. International football offers meaning, identity and consequence. Szoboszlai appears to have used one to survive the other.

That workload has been significant. Few players have logged more minutes. Fatigue is not just physical but emotional, especially when summers that should bring renewal are instead filled with reflection and regret. From a club perspective, the enforced rest next summer may even prove beneficial. From a personal perspective, it will be another reminder of what is missing.

Time, regret and redemption

Football is a sport obsessed with momentum, yet international careers are defined by patience. Redemption, if it comes, often arrives years after the wound. Szoboszlai’s challenge now is to hold on to belief without letting the weight of expectation become paralysing.

Hungary’s next World Cup campaign will not begin with optimism alone. It will begin with memory. The last-minute defeat, the quiet dressing room, the interviews that revealed too much honesty. These things do not disappear. They harden.

Szoboszlai still has time. Time to lead, time to refine, time to return Hungary to the biggest stage. Whether that happens will depend on many factors beyond one player’s control. But the determination is clear. This is not a regret he intends to carry forever.