Player Focus: Kleinheisler an Unlikely Hero as Hungary Return to the Big Time

Around an hour and a half after the final whistle at the Groupama Arena on Sunday, Laszlo Kleinheisler, his bag slung over his shoulder, paused to answer his phone. For a few minutes he stood in the light by the main entrance between the two huge statues, one of the great forward Florian Albert, the other of Ferenc Springer, the first president of Ferencvaros. For a few moments at least, Kleinheisler had entered the pantheon.
 
It was his goal in Oslo, spinning quickly in the box, manufacturing a shot where it seemed none could exist, that transformed the play-off and secured Hungary a place at a major tournament for the first time since 1986. The Norway goalkeeper Orjan Nyland was taken by surprise and ended up flapping at the ball as it sped past him, a goal created out of nothing. Norway had 64.7% possession in that game, 16 corners to Hungary’s 0 and 21 shots to Hungary’s 6, but it was the away side who won.
 
As their coach, Per-Mathias Hogmo, acknowledged, that had forced Norway to be more aggressive than they might have liked in the second leg, and that left them vulnerable to just the sort of breakaway goal that Tamas Priskin scored after 14 minutes. After that there was no way back. Kleinheisler’s influence was decisive.
 
Yet the 21-year old is the most improbable of heroes. The game in Norway was his first for the national side. He plays in the Hungarian third division for Videoton’s reserve side. When Bernd Storck included him for that first leg, there was widespread shock.
 
It’s not that Kleinheisler is not talented, or that he is entirely unknown. He came through at the Puskas Academy, which was established by Hungary’s prime minister Victor Orban in his home town of Felcsut to try to use football to improve Hungary’s global image. The youngster is, people who know him say, likable but wild. He has a history of behavioural issues. He was briefly expelled from the academy before being taken back. He graduated from the academy to Videoton, the major club Orban is associated with, but after a dispute over his contract they cast him into the reserves.

But still Kleinheisler, who is nicknamed “Scholes” for his ginger hair, is an implausible figure to have carried his nation back to a major tournament. He didn’t just score in the first leg, he also retained possession better than any other Hungarian player (85.7% pass completion rate) and, on a night when they were penned back for long periods, managed a key pass and two shots, both of them on target. His rawer side, though, is shown up by the four occasions he lost possession with a poor first touch. For a player who plays at the pace he does, though, perhaps that is only natural.
 
Kleinheisler wasn’t quite as dominant in the second leg. His pass completion rate dipped to 73.7%. Perhaps there were occasions when he seemed a little rushed – but maybe that’s only to be expected from a player of such inexperience. He lost the ball three times to poor first touches. But he was also dangerous. He played three key passes when none of his team-mates managed more than one, looking always to exploit the high Norwegian line that left space for Tamas Priskin to burst into. His one shot was on target. Against a Norway side that was stolidly predictable – another nine corners, but no goals, although Even Hovland did head against a post – he was a player who offered a spark of ingenuity and imagination. He did something different.
 
Perhaps he is too difficult a personality ever to settle anywhere. Perhaps he never will do anything else. But Kleinheisler has his place in Hungarian history. After 30 years, he was the key figure in getting them back to a major tournament.

How impressed were you with Kleinheisler's performances in Hungary's double header with Norway? Let us know in the comments below