Imre Szabics (born 22 March 1981) is a Hungarian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and former professional footballer. Szabics was born in Szeged where he played as a youngster. He was spotted by

Ferencváros Ferencváros () is the 9th district of Budapest ( hu, Budapest IX. kerülete), Hungary. Name The southern suburb of Pest was named after King Francis I on 4 December 1792 when he was crowned king of Hungary. History The development of Fe ...

and signed for them in 1990, making his professional debut in 1998. He spent only one season at the club before moving to Austrian club

Sturm Graz Sportklub Sturm Graz is an Austrian association football club, based in Graz, Styria, playing in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1909. Its colours are black and white. In its history, Sturm Graz has won the Austrian f ...

. Good form led to an international call-up in 2003, after which he signed for German side

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB Stu ...

. He had a disappointing season in 2004–05 in which he was mostly only used as a substitute, before joining 1. FC Köln in 2005. After initially being a first-team striker, Szabics had little later success at this club and left when his contract expired in 2006. He was signed by

Mainz 05 1. Fußball- und Sportverein Mainz 05 e. V., usually shortened to 1. FSV Mainz 05, Mainz 05 () or simply Mainz (), is a German sports club, founded in 1905 and based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. 1. FSV Mainz 05 play in the Bundesliga, the top ...

, but was once again unsuccessful. In the summer of 2007, Szabics joined newly promoted 2. Bundesliga side

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded as ...

spending three years with the club. In May 2010, Szabics returned to his former club

. In 2014

Pál Dárdai Pál Dárdai (born 16 March 1976) is a Hungarian retired footballer who played mainly as a defensive midfielder, and last coached Hertha BSC. In a 20-year professional career, he played for over a decade with the same club, Hertha BSC, in Ger ...

appointed Szabics as an assistant coach of the Hungary national football team. Dárdai's successor,

Bernd Storck Bernd Storck, HOM (born 25 January 1963) is a German professional football manager and former player. He is the manager of Belgian club Kortrijk. A defender in his player days, he played for VfL Bochum and Borussia Dortmund. Club career Storc ...

, replaced him with

Andreas Möller Andreas Möller (born 2 September 1967) is a German former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He is the head of the youth department at Eintracht Frankfurt. Club career At club level, Möller played for Eintrach ...

Club career

Ferencváros

Imre Szabics was born in

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

and started to play football at local club Szeged LC in 1990. He spent five years with the club before leaving it for

Ferencvárosi TC Ferencvárosi Torna Club, known as Ferencváros (), Fradi, or simply FTC, is a professional football club based in Ferencváros, Budapest, Hungary, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the top flight of Hungarian football. Ferencváros wa ...

in 1995. Szabics immediately became the favourite player of the fans of the club since he scored 12 goals in 24 matches.

Sturm Graz

In 1999 Szabics was signed by the

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

SK Sturm Graz Sportklub Sturm Graz is an Austrian association football club, based in Graz, Styria, playing in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1909. Its colours are black and white. In its history, Sturm Graz has won the Austria ...

. He played for the Austrian club from 1999 to 2003. During this time, he played in the

UEFA Champions League 1999–00 Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs Ass ...

season where Sturm qualified for the second group stages. His last season at Sturm was especially successful, as he became the club's top goalscorer by scoring 11 goals in 27 Bundesliga appearances that season. In May 2003 Szabics was sacked from Sturm because of his "non-compliance with work regulations".

VfB Stuttgart

Szabics subsequently moved to Germany signing with

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

side

in the summer of 2003. He spent two seasons with the club, appearing in a total of 49 Bundesliga matches and scoring 14 goals for VfB Stuttgart in the league. He also played in seven matches in the Champions League season of 2003–04, scoring twice against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. After a less successful season 2004–05, in which he was mostly only used as a substitute, the striker moved to another Bundesliga side, 1. FC Köln, in the summer of 2005.

1. FC Köln

In June 2005 Szabics was signed by the German 1. FC Köln. Szabics had little success at this club, collecting only 11 Bundesliga appearances and scoring one goal in the league before they were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga with a 17th-place finish. He went on to sign a two-year contract with Bundesliga side 1. FSV Mainz 05 in early August 2006. After initially being a first-team striker, he got unlucky again later on, being relegated to the bench in the second half of the season.

FC Augsburg

After having played in 20 games for Mainz, scoring twice, Imre was transferred to 2. Bundesliga newcomers

in the summer of 2007. There, he played in eight games at the start of the season, scoring twice before he was sidelined by an injury at the end of September.

Sturm Graz

On 1 May 2010, it was announced that Szabics would return to

for the 2010–11 season. Szabics won the

Austrian Football Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. Szabics's team faced the

Hungarian League Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the assignme ...

winner Videoton in the qualifiers of the

2010–11 UEFA Champions League The 2010–11 UEFA Champions League was the 56th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 19th under the UEFA Champions League format. The final was held at Wembley Stadium in London on 28 May 2011, where Bar ...

season. It was a special tie for Szabics because he had not played against a Hungarian club since he left his home country. He scored the first goal for his team, which beat Videoton by 2–0 at home. In the away match, Sturm lost to 3–2 but qualified for the next round. In September 2013 Szabics announced his retirement from football.

International career

Szabics made his debut for the Hungary national team in their friendly match against

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

on 30 April 2003 and went on to score two goals in a 5–1 victory for the Hungarians. He subsequently made four appearances and scored four goals for Hungary in the

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

qualifying, including a brace in his competitive debut and the team's 3–1 home victory over

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

on 7 June 2003. He also played for Hungary in five matches of the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

qualifying and scored one goal, the 3–2 winner against

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

at home in the team's second match of the qualifying. Hungary failed to qualify for any of the two tournaments by finishing fourth in their groups in both of the two qualifying campaigns. After the injuries of Rudolf, Priskin, and Szalai, Szabics was called up for

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

again after four years on 3 June 2011. Going in as a substitute for the second half, Szabics scored the only goal of the game in the 53rd minute. On 2 September 2011, Szabics scored against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

at the Puskás Ferenc Stadium in the last minutes of the first half; however, Sweden equalized in the second half. A late goal by Szabics's fellow striker

Gergely Rudolf Gergely Rudolf (; born 9 March 1985) is a Hungarian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Club career Rudolf was born in Nyíregyháza. Debrecen Rudolf signed a contract with the Hungarian champion Debrecen in 2007. His fi ...

resulted the celebration of 25,000 spectators after the team beat Sweden in the

Euro 2012 qualifying The qualifying competition for UEFA Euro 2012 was a series of parallel association football competitions held over 2010 and 2011 to decide the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2012, held in Poland and Ukraine. The draw for the qualifying rounds was held ...

by 2–1.

Managerial career

On 18 September 2014,

was appointed as interim manager of the

Hungarian national football team The Hungary national football team ( hu, magyar labdarúgó-válogatott) represents Hungary in men's international football and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation. The team has made 9 appearances in the FIFA World Cup and 4 appe ...

, and he appointed Szabics as an assistant coach. In an interview with the

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the ...

, Szabics stated that it was a big honour to be the assistant coach of the Hungarian national team. In an interview with ''

Nemzeti Sport ''Nemzeti Sport'' (the title means "National Sport") is a Hungarian sports daily. History and profile ''Nemzeti Sport'' was founded in 1903. The paper is owned by Ringier of Switzerland. It is frequently cited by quality English-language media The ...

,'' he said that he was not important in this story, but the national team was. He was replaced by

in October 2015. Assistant manager in Austrian national team.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Hungary's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Szabics goal''.

Managerial statistics

''As of 15 July 2021''

Honours

Sturm Graz *

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, Runner-up 2000 *

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

: Runner-up 2002 *

Austrian Supercup The Austrian Supercup (German: ÖFB-Supercup) was a Association football, football competition held annually from 1986 until 2004 between the winners of the Austrian Football Bundesliga and the Austrian Cup. 19 editions were played during the sho ...

: Runner-up 2002 VfB Stuttgart *

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

: Runner-up 2005 FC Augsburg * 2. Bundesliga: Third place 2009–10 Individual * Hungarian Footballer of the Year: 2003

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Szabics, Imre 1981 births Living people Association football forwards Hungarian footballers Hungary international footballers Hungarian football managers Ferencvárosi TC footballers SK Sturm Graz players VfB Stuttgart players 1. FSV Mainz 05 players 1. FC Köln players FC Augsburg players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Fehérvár FC managers Nemzeti Bajnokság I managers Hungarian expatriate footballers Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate footballers in Austria Hungary youth international footballers Hungary under-21 international footballers Sportspeople from Szeged