Tamás Hajnal (; born 15 March 1981) is a Hungarian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

Born in

Esztergom Esztergom ( ; german: Gran; la, Solva or ; sk, Ostrihom, known by alternative names) is a city with county rights in northern Hungary, northwest of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom County, on the right bank of the river Danu ...

, Hungary, Hajnal started playing football at the local Zoltek SE in his hometown

Nyergesújfalu Nyergesújfalu (german: Neudorf; la, Crumerum) is a town in Komárom-Esztergom County, Hungary, in the Central Transdanubia region. The city, located near the river Danube, is an ancient site of habitation. It was located on the Crumerum, a maj ...

Ferencvárosi TC and Dunakanyar Vác FC

At the age of nine, Hajnal joined

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 ...

. He played two matches in the

Hungarian National Championship I 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 ...

for Ferencvárosi TC. In the same year, he moved to Dunakanyar-Vác FC as part of an exchange deal. He did not play any matches in the Dunakanyar-Vác FC. Next year he headed for the German

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 ...

Schalke 04

Dunakanyar-Vác FC made a lot of money by quickly selling him to

FC Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhi ...

. He found it hard to make the breakthrough with the Royal Blues, and after a mere seven Bundesliga appearances he moved to Belgium in 2004.

Sint-Truiden

He joined

Sint-Truidense V.V. Koninklijke Sint-Truidense Voetbalvereniging (), commonly known as Sint-Truiden or STVV () or by their nickname De Kanaries (, is a Belgian professional football club located in the city of Sint-Truiden in Limburg. Sint-Truiden plays in the Belg ...

in 2004. In the

2004–05 Belgian First Division The 2004-05 season of the Belgian First Division began on August 6, 2004 and ended on May 23, 2005. Club Brugge became champions on May 15, 2005 after a decisive game against long-time rivals Anderlecht. The season was full of suspense as the ...

season he scored six goals in 29 matches. In the next season he played 20 matches and scored five goals.

1.FC Kaiserslautern

In 2006, Hajnal moved to the Bundesliga to join 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He played 32 matches and scored seven goals in the 2006–07 2. Bundesliga season.

Karlsruher SC

In 2007, Hajnal transferred to

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the D ...

. He played 32 matches and scored eight goals in the

2007–08 Bundesliga The 2007–08 Bundesliga was the 45th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. It began on 10 August 2007 and ended on 17 May 2008. VfB Stuttgart were the defending champions. Competition format Every team played two games a ...

season.

Borussia Dortmund

In July 2008, he moved to

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

for a fixed transfer fee of €1.3m. His performance in Dortmund's 4–0 win against Frankfurt on 15 November 2008—scoring once and assists for three goals—earned him a place in the Bundesliga Team of the Week and made Hajnal Man of The Match. In the next round, Hajnal was again in the Team of the Week. He played 30 matches and scored five goals during the

2008–09 Bundesliga The 2008–09 Bundesliga was the 46th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season began on 15 August 2008 with a 2–2 draw between defending champions Bayern Munich and Hamburger SV and ended with the last matches ...

season. In the

2009–10 Bundesliga The 2009–10 Bundesliga was the 47th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season commenced on 7 August 2009 with the traditional season-opening match involving the defending champions VfL Wolfsburg and VfB Stuttgart. ...

season he played 21 matches. He was injured in 2010, therefore he could not play in the

2010–11 Bundesliga The 2010–11 Bundesliga was the 48th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. It began on 20 August 2010 and concluded on 14 May 2011. The winter break was in effect between weekends around 18 December 2010 and 15 January 20 ...

season for Borussia Dortmund.

VfB Stuttgart

On 31 January 2011, Hajnal was loaned out to

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 scored his first goal against

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

on 27 February 2011. The final result was 2–0 for Stuttgart. On 7 May 2011, Hajnal moved permanently to VfB Stuttgart because the club avoided relegation. Hajnal extended his contract with VfB Stuttgart on 7 January 2013 until June 2014 with an option for a further year.

FC Ingolstadt 04

On 1 August 2013, he moved to

FC Ingolstadt 04 Fußball-Club Ingolstadt 2004 e.V., commonly known as FC Ingolstadt 04 or FC Ingolstadt, is a German football club based in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. The club was founded in 2004 out of the merger of the football sides of two other clubs: ESV Ingolst ...

. He made his debut in the 2. Bundesliga against

. In September 2014 he announced he would be leaving the club, and likely returning to his native Hungary.

Ferencváros

On 12 December 2014, Hajnal returned to his former club

after 17 years. Current manager of Ferencváros,

Thomas Doll Thomas Jens Uwe Doll (born 9 April 1966) is a German professional football manager and a former football player who is the current Manager of Persija Jakarta. He played as an attacking midfielder for F.C. Hansa Rostock, BFC Dynamo, Hamburger SV, ...

had been interested in signing Hajnal previously. However, Hajnal was unaware that Ferencváros intended to sign him a couple of weeks before the offer was made. When Hajnal was a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

, he was training with Ferencváros. Therefore, it was obvious that he would join the club if he would return to

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 ...

. On 7 March 2015, Hajnal scored his first goal in the 57th minute in the 2014–15 season of 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 ...

against

Győr Győr ( , ; german: Raab, links=no; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia ...

at the

Groupama Arena Groupama an abbreviation for Groupe des Assurances Mutuelles Agricoles ( en , Group of Mutual Agricultural Insurances) is a French insurance group headquartered in Paris with operations in 10 countries. It is listed in the 2007 International Co ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

International career

On 9 October 2004, Hajnal played his first match for

Solna Solna Municipality ( sv, Solna kommun or , ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna is one of t ...

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 ...

and on 17 October 2007, he scored his first international goal in a friendly match against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. The final result was 1–0 to

. Hungary finished a disappointing sixth in their qualifying group for

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

and have been out of the running for a place in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

next year since the beginning of the qualification period. The competition from

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

was simply too strong for Hajnal and his team mates, who nevertheless beat

Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and Pars pro toto#Geography, often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of Southern Europe, south and southeast Euro ...

home and away during the campaign. Hajnal scored twice against

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

in the

Puskás Ferenc Stadium Puskás is a Hungarian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Ferenc Puskás (1927–2006), Hungarian football player and manager **FIFA Puskás Award, the player judged to have scored the most aesthetically significant and "most beauti ...

in a friendly match. The final result was 3–3. During the FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifying he scored against

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. The final result was 3–0. This goal was the first goal scored in a qualifier. During the management of

Sándor Egervári Sándor Egervári (born 15 July 1950) is a Hungarian football manager. He attended the University of Physical Education in Budapest and qualified as a football coach in 1983. He has completed the UEFA A and B course and as well as the pro lic ...

(2010–present), Hajnal played his first match in the

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Hajnal scored a goal against

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

on 9 February 2011.

defeated

2–0 in a friendly match.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Club

Schalke 04 *

DFB-Ligapokal The DFL-Ligapokal (, officially Premiere Ligapokal , previously DFB-Ligapokal ) or the ''German League Cup'' was a German football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five teams of the previous ...

runner-up: 2001, 2002 Ferencváros *

Nemzeti Bajnokság I The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, "National Championship"), also known as NB I, is the top level of the Hungarian football league system. The league is officially named OTP Bank Liga after its title sponsor OTP Bank. UEFA currently ranks the league 28th ...

: 2015–16 *

Hungarian Cup The Hungarian Cup ( hu, Magyar Kupa) is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association, the ''Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség,'' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of the Hungarian ...

: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17 *

Hungarian League Cup The Hungarian League Cup ( hu, Magyar Ligakupa) was an annual football tournament contested by clubs in the Hungarian League. It was created in 2007 and the competition only lasted for 8 seasons, being cancelled in 2015/2016. Ligakupa Finals The ...

: 2014–15 *

Szuperkupa The Hungarian Super Cup is an annual association football match between the League (Nemzeti Bajnokság I) champions and the Cup (Magyar Kupa) winners. Winners (*) due to violent incidents during the recent 1997–98 Magyar Kupa Final between ...

: 2015

Individual

* Hungarian Footballer of the Year: 2007, 2008 * Named in the 2007–08 Bundesliga all-star team (bundesliga.de) * Pro Urbe Prize: 2008

References

External links

Tamás Hajnal
profile at magyarfutball.hu * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hajnal, Tamas 1981 births Living people People from Esztergom Ferencvárosi TC footballers FC Schalke 04 players FC Schalke 04 II players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Karlsruher SC players Borussia Dortmund players Borussia Dortmund II players VfB Stuttgart players FC Ingolstadt 04 players Vác FC players Sint-Truidense V.V. players Belgian Pro League players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Hungarian footballers Hungary men's international footballers Hungary men's under-21 international footballers Hungarian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Belgium Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Men's association football midfielders Sportspeople from Komárom-Esztergom County