FRISCO, Texas – For new signing Szabolcs Schön, there was no sense of easing into life with FC Dallas.
He’s only been here a matter of weeks but the 20-year-old Hungarian has already won the trust of the coaching staff. Schön made his debut in the Texas Derby with just two full training sessions under his belt. A week later, he reprised his role as a second-half substitute away to Minnesota United. Neither were easy games to enter. And that’s exactly what he wants.
“My goals are to be in (starting) 11 first. I want to play a lot of minutes and score goals and assists for the team,” Schön said in his first FC Dallas interview. “I feel really comfortable here, on and off the pitch. I like my teammates, I like the staff, so I’m really happy.
“After just two weeks I was straight in the squad. I played like half an hour and felt really good on the pitch. I had some combinations with my teammates so for the first game I think it went okay.”
The lack of an adjustment period is partly down to FC Dallas’ playstyle, which Schön feels is similar to the one that helped him record nine goals and four assists in 27 games for MTK Budapest this season.
“It’s a style (at FCD) that I think is the same as MTK,” he explained. “The high press is the same. We play also with the wingers. At MTK, the wingers played inside. Here, I can decide whether to play on the inside or outside and sometimes I change it.”
Schön was fast tracked into FCD’s matchday squad but it won’t be for long. The winger is set to fly back home at the end of the month to join up with Hungary’s Euro 2020 preliminary squad for its pre-tournament friendlies. If Hungary picks him for its final tournament squad, Schön will miss FCD’s three June games. Still, playing for one’s country – especially in a major tournament like the Euros – is every players’ dream.
Schön: “For me, it means everything. I scored a goal (for Hungary’s U-21s) for the first time which made me really happy. Thanks to my teammates and my older teammates because without them it wouldn’t have happened.”
Hungary’s group stage opponents are daunting: Current world champions France, current European champions Portugal, and four-time World Cup winners Germany. “They’re really tough games but we’ll try to do our best and play our style. We’ll see what’s going to happen,” Schön said.
Schön is no stranger to challenges. After spending eight years in Budapest Honvéd’s youth system, the then 16-year-old moved to the Netherlands to join Ajax’s famed academy. There, he played and competed alongside future stars including Juventus’ Matthijs de Ligt, Barcelona’s Frankie de Jong and USMNT & Barca fullback Sergiño Dest (who Schön remembers as being “fast and good with the ball”).
Schön never got a shot with Ajax’s first team and returned home to MTK Budapest where he impressed FCD’s scouts enough to earn a transfer. It’s early days, but Schön's ability with and without the ball could prove vital to Dallas’ ambitions this season and beyond.
“He can score goals,” Luchi Gonzalez said of Schön. “He was the leading goal scorer at his last club. At the same time, we know he’s going to press and have energy in ball recovery. He can cover for his outside backs. He’s a two-way player for us and we need that to be as complete and competitive as possible to do something in this league.”
