Dominik Szoboszlai, a Hungarian midfielder playing for Liverpool this season, has been highly regarded for his talent since his teenage years, and after a steady progression with Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig, he made his way up to the world’s most prestigious league.
Despite his height of 1.87 meters, he is able to dodge the opposing press with a delicate touch of the ball. He can also dribble through on his own and score impressive goals with his powerful shooting. His pressing, which he developed at Red Bull, is intense and lionized even in the final stages of the game.
According to Szoboszlaihimself, the player’s technical prowess is due to his father, Zsolt Szoboszlai, a former professional who gave his son unique training sessions full of ideas, both on and off the pitch.
“It was inside the house because we had no garden,”
“If the water was still in the bottles, it was easier to dribble past them. But if there wasn’t any in, it was a lot harder. My dad would pour the water out almost every single time.”
“If one of the bottles fell, I just had to keep on doing it until none of them fell. I had to stay there until it was perfect. Then I could go!
“I started kicking a ball around when I first started to walk. The first time I went onto the pitch with my dad, I was about three.”
“If someone goes past you, you want to grab his shirt, but my dad didn’t want that because of giving away fouls.”
“He wanted to make sure I grew up without those habits. So, yeah, he’d put golf balls in every player’s hands.”
“If you have that then you can’t grab anyone. He did some crazy things — I don’t want to say all of them!”
The Athletic